





.0 V 



.• ^^' 










v^^ 


















V 






















Arms of 

HENRY HUDSON 

Founder & 1!' Assistant of tTae 

MUSCOVY COMPANT 

OBIIT 1555. 



HISTORICAL INQUIRY 



CONCERNING 



enrp Mutfson, 



FRIENDS, RELATIVES AND EARLY LIFE, 



CONNECTION WITH THE MUSCOVY COMPANY 



DISCOVERY OF DELAWARE BAY 



/ 



JOH^ MEREDITH READ Jk 




ALBANY : 
JOEL MUNSELL 

MDCCCLXVI. 



i> 



^5 /5 



Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1866, 
By John Meredith Read Jr. 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States, 
for the Northern District of New York. 




MY FATHER 



THE FOLLOWING PAGES AEE 



EetJ^rcntls luscribeb. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Wilmington, 13th October, 1864. 
Gen. John M. Read Jr., Albany. 

Dear Sir : At a meeting of the Historical Society of Delaware, held 
this evening, the following resolutions were unanimously adopted : 

" Resolved : That the thanks of this Society are eminently due and 
are hereby presented to Gen. John Meredith Read Jr., for the eloquent 
and highly interesting oration delivered before the Society this 
evening." 

" Besolcedj : That Gen. Read be requested to furnish a copy of his 
Address, to be preserved in our archives, and that the same be pub- 
lished by the Society." 

The undersigned, a committee appointed by the Society to transmit 
the resolutions to you, beg leave to express the hope that you will 
comply with the request therein contained, so that your valuable dis- 
course may be rendered the more generally accessible to our fellow 
citizens. 

"We remain. 

Very truly yours, 

WiLLAKD Hall, 
Alfred Lee, 
Charles Breck, 
Leighton Coleman, 
L. P. Bush, 
D. ]\r. Bates. 



VI 



230 State Street, Albany, N. Y., } 
January, 12tli, 1865. f 

Gentlemen : 

It gives me pleasure to accede to your request by placing my manu- 
script at your disposal. As you will readily perceive, it contains an 
amplification of details, out of place in an oral performance, but 
essential in a written discourse, wherein new flvcts and views are ad- 
vanced. Accustomed to regard the developments of individual as well 
as of national history, as so many exhibitions of the Providence of 
God, I have endeavored faithfully to investigate the early life and 
training of one, who was the instrument in His hands, to practically 
reveal to the inhabitants of the Old World a great extent of territory, 
Avhich has finally become the home of a free and enlightened people. 
With sentiments of the highest respect, 
I am, gentlemen, very sincerely yours, 

J. M. Read Jk. 
To 

The Hon. Willakd Hall, President of the Society, 

The Right Rev. Dr. Alfred Lee, 

The Re\^rexd Charles Breck, 

The Reverend Leighton Colemajst, 

L. P. Bush, Esquire, M.D., and 

D. M. Bates, Esquire. 



HENRY HUDSON 



A DISCOURSE 

Delivered at Wilmington, before the Historical Society 
OF Delaware, on its First Annis^ersary. 



DISCOURSE. 



/)L. ^"tA S I stand here to-night, upon the soil 
of Dehaware, sacred to me as the 
cradle and the grave of many of my 
family, my heart is filled with grate- 
ful emotions awakened by the thought, 
J^ that a Historical Society, composed of the 
most distinguished" citizens, has at last been in- 
augurated within these borders, and is about to 
engage in the agreeable duty of gathering up and 
preserving for all time, the invaluable but hitherto 
sadly neglected records of the State and Province. 
From the precious materials thus collected, I 
hope to see arise, at no distant day, a clear, lumi- 
nous and connected narrative, embodying the story 
of our ancestors' heroic lives. 

The discovery and early settlement of America 
have always been to me subjects replete with in- 
tensest interest, and the attempted solution of 
2 



6 

some of the questions connected therewith, has fur- 
nished me with many delightful hours of reflection. 
On this, the first anniversary of an association 
henceforth pledged to link the glorious memories 
of the past with the great living realities of the 
present, I propose to examine critically the life 
and antecedents of Henry Hudson, — with special 
reference to his discovery of Delaware Bay, — 
hoping thus to develop the prominent traits of his 
character, and to reveal with clearness and pre- 
cision the origin of his visit to these shores. If 
the views which I am about to present, shall 
appear to clash with the generally received opi- 
nions respecting this remarkable man, and the 
causes that led him to undertake the voyage which 
had such important results, I can only say that my 
convictions are the fruits of patient study, and 
that I am confident further investigations will 
substantially confirm the conclusions I have thus 
deliberately reached. At the same time, I wish 
it distinctly understood that my sole desire is to 
obtain an entirely truthful idea of the important, 
yet obscure points involved in the suggested 
enquiry. I am therefore quite as anxious to elicit 
information, as to impart knowledge concerning- 
the subject which I have chosen to illustrate. 



People have been so long accustomed to regard 
Henry Hudson as the peculiar property of New 
York, that scarcely any one dreams of associating 
his name with the history of Delaware, and very 
few are aware that in point of time the latter 
state has a prior claim to him as her discoverer. 
Yet such is the fact. To him belongs the first 
position on your roll of honored names, for he first 
revealed to the world this bay and river, and 
made known the beautiful region in which you 
live. On the 28th of August, 1609, he entered 
and explored the waters to which your Common- 
wealth owes its name, whereas the Half Moon 
did not anchor within Sandy Hook until the 
evening of the 3d of September. New York is 
accordingly Delaware's younger sister. 

Although the fame of Henry Hudson is coexten- 
sive with the civilized world, few men of equal 
distinction have existed, of whose personal history 
so little has been ascertained. 

Detailed accounts of four extraordinary voyages 
accomplished by him, have been preserved in the 
curious pages of Purclias; but the most diligent 
efforts of tjie learned have thus far failed to elicit 
from any quarter, a single authentic incident con- 
nected with his early life. 



Nearly a century ago George Steevens said of 
one of Hudson's great contemporaries : " All that is 
known with any degree of certainty concerning 
Shakespeare is, that he was born at Stratford- 
upon-Avon ; married and had children there ; 
went to London, where he commenced actor, and 
wrote poems and plays ; returned to Stratford, 
made his will, died, and was buried." 

Here, however, are the outlines of an ample 
biography, within which, by the aid of parish 
registers, town deeds and records, diaries, and the 
gossip of contemporaries, a narrative may be con- 
structed illustrating the career of the poet, from 
his cradle to his grave. 

No such materials have up to the present time 
been revealed, upon which reliance can be placed 
for aid in sketching the life of Hudson. That he 
was an Englishman may indeed be readily and 
satisfactorily proved, but as to where or when he 
was born, we have no evidence whatever. 

His birth, his parentage, his home, his boyhood, 
the early days of his manhood, and the influences 
under which the character and genius of the great 
discoverer were first developed, would be, to all, 
matters of deepest interest. Unfortunately, we 
are met at the very threshold of our investigations, 



9 

by the fact that absolutely nothing is known of 
Hudson, prior to the 19th of April, 1607, when he 
suddenly appears upon the stage of action as a 
captain in the employ of the Muscovy Company, 
and after the brief period of five years of brilliant 
explorations in the service of the English and the 
Dutch, prematurely perishes by treachery amid 
the scenes of his triumphs. 

The story of his wonderful discoveries, his hair- 
breadth escaj)es. his romantic voyages in wintry 
seas, are as familiar to us as household words, and 
we are prepared to recognize in Hudson, the man 
who, two centuries and a half ago, braving untold 
dangers, reached a degree of northern latitude sur- 
passed by few modern explorers, and there, noting 
the singular amelioration of the climate, originated 
the great idea of an open polar sea,^ a theory which 
later investigators have adopted and fully confirmed. 

In England we find that his memory is perpetu- 
ated in the title of a gigantic trading corporation, 
and in America, by common consent, his name is 
affixed to most of the great discoveries which he 
inaugurated and efi'ected. 



1 American scholars are indebted to the Hon. Henry (J. Mur- 
phy for establishing Hudson's claim to be considered as the 
originator of this theory. 



10 

From the capes of the Delaware to the ice-bound 
shores of the Pole, our contiuent has associations 
connected with Hudson. 

The same tides which glistened in the sun when 
he first beheld them, still rise and fall in your 
bay ; the waters of a noble river in the state of 
New York, as they roll to the ocean, kiss the green 
banks where his footsteps lingered two hundred 
and fifty years since, wdiile the stormy waves of a 
great inland sea, far away in the north, chant an 
eternal requiem over the remains of the ill-fated 
discoverer who, centuries since, found his grave in 
their gloomy depths. 

Yet the previous life of this interesting and re- 
markable man, who filled the world with his name, 
still remains an entire blank, and is to all as a 
sealed book. Surely this is a fact well calculated 
to excite astonishment and provoke enquiry, and 
I must confess that I have entered upon this por- 
tion of my subject with a degree of interest and zeal 
which has carried me, far beyond my first inten- 
tions, into a thorough and extended examination 
of all the sources at my command, with the hoj^e 
of eventually throwing light upon a matter so 
entirely obscure. I am consoled for many hours 
of patient, and apparently fruitless research, by the 



n 

reflection that I have become intimately acquainted 
with many of the original materials from which the 
historians of Europe and America have drawn their 
facts, and have thus been enabled, in quite a num- 
ber of instances, to modify and correct opinions of 
men and affairs, which I had derived from writers 
who were sometimes swayed b}^ party prejudice or 
personal dislike. 

But were these the entire results of my labors, 
I should feel that however valuable or interesting 
they might have proved to mj'self, as far as the 
subject in hand was concerned, my investigations 
had indeed been comparatively useless. It gives 
me, therefore, great pleasure to believe myself cor- 
rect in the assertion that I have discovered a series 
of curious facts and striking coincidences, which, 
have escaped the attention of scholars for the last 
two hundred years, and which, taken in connection 
with authorities soon to be indicated, may enable 
a person having access to the treasures of the British 
Museum, and the ancient records of the Russia 
Compan}^, to ascertain the antecedents and early 
history of Henry Hudson. 

Before proceeding to sketch that portion of his 
history which is knowu, including his discovery of 
Delaware Bay, I shall endeavor to place before 



12 

you as clearly as possible, the fruits of my re- 
searches. 

After examining all the biographies and notices 
of this great navigator within my reach, which 
alone embraced a wide range of reading, I found 
that, with scarcely an exception, they referred to 
Parclias. His Pllgrimes and Pllg7'image, as the foun- 
tain head of knowledge on the subject, or were 
based upon statements made by that author. 
Having accordingly procured one of the original 
editions of PurcJias, published in 1625, fourteen 
years after Hudson's death, I studied it carefully, 
page by page, in connection wdth the two latest and 
ablest contributions to his life : Henry Hudson in 
Holland, by the Hon. Henry C. Murphy, late 
minister of the United States at The Hague, and 
Henry Hudson the Navigator, by Dr. Aslier, member 
of the Hakluyt Society of London. 

The first mention of Hudson by Purchas occurs 
in connection with the Muscovy Company. Edge, 
in his Brief Discover ie of the Muscovia Merchants, 
says : *' In the year 1608,^ the said fellowship 
[the Muscovy or Russia Company] set forth a ship 
called the Hopewell, whereof Henry Hudson was 



1 The real date of this voyage to Spitzbergen is 1607. That 
of 1G08 was directed to Nova Zembla. 



13 

master, to discover the pole."^ Captain Fotherby, 
who was also in the employ of the Muscovy Com- 
'ptiny, speaks of having " perused Hudson's jour- 
nal."" But the earliest reference to a personal 
incident in the life of the great mariner is to be 
found in the journal of the first voyage, " of 
that worthy irrecoverable discoverer Master Henry 
Hudson," as given by Purchas.^ " Anno, 1607, 
Aprill the nineteenth, at St. Ethelburge, in Bishops 
Gate street, did communicate with the rest of the 
parishioners these persons, seamen, purposing togoe 
to sea foure dayes after, for to discover a passage 
by the North Pole to Japan and China. First, 
Henry Hudson, master. Secondly, William Col- 
ines, his mate. Thirdly, James Young. Fourthly, 
John Colman. Fiftly, John Cooke. Sixtly, James 
Beuberry. Seventhly, James Skrutton. Eightly, 
John Pleyce. Ninthly, Thomas Baxter. Tenth- 
ly, Kichard Day. Eleventhly, James Knight. 
Twelfthly, John Hudson, a boy." A singularly 
small crew, when we consider the extent and hazard- 
ous character of the explorations, which were prin- 
cipally along the coast of Spitzbergen ; were under- 
taken for the Muscovy Company, and had for their 



1 Parchas, III, 4G4. ^Ih., Ill, 730. 3 /6., Ill, 567. 
3 



14 

object the discovery of a north-eastern passage to 
China. 

The journal of the second voyage, made for a 
like purpose, in 1608, also at the expense of the 
Muscovy Company, and which resulted in making 
known a portion of Nova Zembla, next demands 
our attention. 

In quick succession follow the records of Hud- 
son's third voyage in 1609, when, in the service of 
the Dutch East India Company, he discovered New 
Netherland, and the account of his fourth and 
last voyage in 1610-11, in search of a north-west 
passage to China. It was in this expedition, the 
cost of which was defrayed by several English 
gentlemen, of whom Sir Dudley Digges was one, 
that Hudson met his tragic end. 

Having thus ascertained, with sufficient accuracy 
for present purposes, the extent of the informa- 
tion contained in Purclias, we are prepared to 
appreciate the peculiarly abrupt manner in which 
Hudson is introduced to our notice. Without a 
single prefatory remark about his previous career, 
he is first suddenly mentioned as a Captain in the 
employ of the Muscovy Company, just starting 
upon along and perilous voyage, which must require 
from the commander of the expedition great cour- 



15 

age, entire coolness, thorough seamanship, wide 
knowledge and enlarged experience. 

He is thus presented to our view as a character 
with whose antecedents we must, as a matter of 
course, be perfectly conversant. He is so well 
known to worthy Purchas his name and fame are 
so fresh in the minds of all, when that author 
records his deeds, that, forgetful of posterity, he 
fails to say anything of the earlier history of his 
hero ; and we are left at this late day, to beat our 
brains with vain conjectures about the early 
experiences of an extraordinary man, whose origin 
Purchas might have indicated with a stroke of his 
pen. 

The omission of all allusion to the prior life of 
Hudson does not so entirely astonish me, when I 
remember the circumstances under which Purchas 
compiled his work. He states in his Pilgrimage^ 
that he received the accounts of Hudson's first 
three voyages from Hakluyt. Now, I find in the 
valuable introduction to Sir Henry Middleton's 
JEast India Voyage ^ by Bolton Corney, M. R. S. L., 
the following interesting paragraph intended to 
account for the mutilation of the records of the 
early East India voyages, but which will serve 

1 Hakluyt Soc. Pub., 1855. 



16 

equally well to explain the singular omissions 
apparent in Purchas's narrative of Hudson's 
career : " Hakluyt undertook the custody of the 
manuscript journals of the voyages and travels to 
which it was held unadvisable to give immediate 
publicity ; comprising voyages to Virginia and to 
the north-western seas, and all the East India voy- 
ages from 1601 almost to the date of his decease in 
1616." 

"About the year 1620, under circumstances 
which are nowhere distinctly stated, the collec- 
tions formed by Hakluyt came into the hands of 
the reverend Samuel Purchas,^ whose Pilgrimages 
or Relatioyis of the World, an unfinished work which 
was first published in 1613, had then reached its 
third edition. Now Purchas, instead of framing a 
continuation of the Principal Navigations, as edited 
by Hakluyt, aspired to supersede those volumes 
by a new compilation, which should include the 
Hakluyt papers and his own collections. In con- 



1 " It is to be regretted that this compiler [Purchas] should 
have adopted the plan of curtailing all his narratives; we get 
more fticts, within a given compass, it is true, but this advan- 
tage is more than compensated by the loss of the interest, and 
indeed confidence, which a genuine unabridged narrative 
always inspires." Winter Jones's Introduction to Hakluyt's 
Voyages to America, p. xxxiv. 



17 

sequence of this injudicious resolution he was com- 
pelled, as he admits, to contract and epitomize his 
vast materials. After much laborious application^ 
made irksome by bodily infirmity, he published 
the results in 1625, in four folio volumes, with the 
quaint title of HaMuytus Postliumus, or Purclias 
his Pllgrimes." ^ 

It was in those large and costly volumes, and 
under such unfavorable circumstances, that the 
voyages of Hudson made their appearance. It is 
not difficult to account for the meagre and unsat- 
isfactory manner in which Purchas presents the 
relations of Hudson's achievements, when we 
know that he compressed the journal of Sir Henry 
Middle ton's voyage "into less than one-twentieth 
])art of its real extent." ^ 

But since our object at present is not to ac- 
count for the shortcomings of Purchas, but rather 
to supply the deficiencies in that portion of his 
work which relates to Hudson, we naturally turn 
to the published volumes of Hakluyt, from whose 
exhaustless manuscript stores the Pilgrimage and 
Pilgrimes were compiled. And here we are once 
more at fault ; for the venerable Hakluyt com- 

1 Bolton Corney's Introduction to Sir Henry Middleton's East 
India Voyage, Hah. Soc. Puh., 1855, i^p. iii, iv. 

2 Eak. Soc. Pub., 1855, p. v. 



18 

pleted " his far-famed volumes, entitled The Princi- 
pal Navigations, Voiages, Traffiques and Discoveries 
of the English Natirni^^ in the last year of the six- 
teenth century, A. D. 1599, and "no augmented 
edition of the work was ever produced, nor any 
continuation of it on the same judicious plan." ^ 
There is, therefore, the hiatus of eight years, from 
1599 to 1607, between the publishing of Hakluyt's 
work, and the appearance of Hudson in Purchas's 
volumes. On turning to the 1599 edition of Hak- 
luyt, I find no mention of our Henry Hudson. 
But I gain much interesting information in rela- 
tion to the Muscovy or Russia Company, and here 
discover the remarkable chain of coincidences to 
which I referred in a preceding part of this 
address. 

I have already mentioned that Henry Hudson 
is first introduced to our notice by Purchas, as 
a " Captain " in the service of the Muscovy Com- 
pany on the 19th of April, 1607. I now discover, 
from the pages of Hakluyt, that another Henry 
Hudson, fifty-two years earlier, i. e., the 6th of 
February, 1555, was named in Queen Mary's Char- 
ter as one of the founders and first assistants of 
the Muscovy or Russia Company. Thus, with 

iCorney's Introduction. 



19 

half a century between them, we have Henry 
Hudson, one of the founders of this great corpora- 
tion, and Henry Hudson a valued and experienced 
captain in its service. I also find a Christopher 
Hudson repeatedly spoken of as one of the factors 
of the Muscovy Company, and finally as their 
agent in Russia in 1560. Moreover, I notice in the 
first volume of Hakluyt, the name of Thomas Hud- 
son, of Limehouse, England, captain in the em- 
ploy of the Muscovy Company in 1580-1.^ 

To say the least, the coincidence of name is some- 
what singular; and I can only account for its having 
escaped entirely the attention of previous investi- 
gators, by explaining that the first Henry Hud- 
son's name is spelt by Hakluyt, Herdson. That 
this same individual's name was also spelt Hudson, 
I learn from the Proceedings of the Court of Glian- 
cery, reign of Elizabeth, vol. II, page 24. The 
name of Christopher Hudson is spelt by Hakluyt 
in a great variety of ways — Hudson, Hodson, Hods- 
don. Having, however, consulted at the outset of 
my studies the learned Camden's Remaines Uon- 

cerning Britaine, wherein Heardson is said to be 

• 

1 The Advertisements and Reports of the 6th voyage made 
into the parts of Russia and Media for the Companie * * * * 
in the years 1579-80-81. By Christopher Burrough, in Hak- 
luyt, I, 421. 



20 

from Herdingson or Hodgskinson, and Hodson from 
Hod or Oddo,! and having read also Lower's curious 
deriviation of Hudson from Roger, I was fully pre- 
pared for a variety of peculiarities in the modes of 
spelling Hudson." Before attempting to present the 
information which I have collected about the first 
Henry Hudson, Christopher Hudson and Thomas 
Hudson, and before endeavoring to sum up my con- 
victions as to the relations which they each sustain- 
ed to our Henry Hudson, it will be well to gain an 
insight into the history of the great corporation with 
which they were all connected ; and whose arch- 



1 Camden's Remaines Concerning JBritaine, London, 1637, 
p. 133. 

- The following account of the origin of this name is to be 
found in the London ed., I860, of Lower's Patronymica Bri- 
tannica, p. 159. " Hodgson, the son of Hodge or Roger. This 
name in the north of England is pronounced Hodgin, while in 
the south it has taken not only the pronunciation, but the 
spelling of Hodson or Hudson. The name of Hodgson is 
ancient at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, being found in the records 
of temp. Edward I, and the Hodgsons of Stella and Acton 
Co., Northumberland, trace a clear pedigree to 1424." Again 
on p. 292, same work : " Roger. A personal name unknown 
here before the conquest. Many persons called Roger, and 
Rogerous, occur as tenants in Domesday. From it are formed 
Rogers, Rodgers, Rogcrson, &c., and from its nick-name Hodge, 
we get Hodges, Hodgson, Hodgkin, Hotckin, Hotchkins, 
Ilotchkiss, Hodgkinson, Hockins, Hodd, Hodson, Hudson. 
The Norman patronymieal form is Fitz-Roger, and the Welsh, 
Ap-Roger, now Prodger." 



21 

ives, if they are still extant, contain, I am inclined 
to believe, original and highly interesting informa- 
tion concerning the earlier life of the great Navi- 
gator, whose antecedents are the subject of our 
immediate enquiry. 

The search for a northwestern passage to China 
was first practically inaugurated by Sebastian 
Cabot, who sailed from England, in the beginning 
of May, 1498. Half a century later, the same 
individual, in his old age, promulgated the idea of 
a northerly opening to India or Cathay, and at his 
instigation, a company, of which he was made 
governor, was organized for its discovery. This 
association, styled the Company of Merchant Ad- 
venturers, is, after a brilliant career of more than 
three hundred years, still in existence, though 
generally known as the Muscovy or Russia Com- 
pany. It has, however, long since abandoned the 
objects it was originally intended to promote. 

In explanation of the ready support accorded to 
Cabot's scheme, we need only be reminded of the 
condition of the maritime affairs of Britain, at that 
period. The Germans and Italians had long 
monopolized the English trade. But at this time 
transatlantic discoveries, and the commerce conse- 
quent thereon Avere beginning to develop, in a won- 



22 

derful degree, the material resources of Spain, Por- 
tugal and the Netherlands, while the prosperity of 
Italy and the Hanse towns was proportionately 
declining. England, whose commerce visibly lan- 
guished under the change, now became eager to 
escape from the waning powers which had so long 
controlled her, and was willing to engage in any 
enterprise that might afford a chance of commer- 
cial independence. 

Accordingly, Cabot's plan for distancing all com- 
petitors by the discovery of a shorter route to India 
by the north-east, immediately arrested the atten- 
tion of men of influence, who were ready to embark 
at once in a project offering such desirable results. 

Clement Adams, in his Newe Navigation and Dis- 
coverie of the Kingdome of Muscovia, hy the North- 
east, in the yeere 1553, says: "At what time our 
merchants perceived the commodities and wares of 
England to bee in small request with the countreys 
and people about us and neere unto us, and that 
those merchandizes which strangers in the time 
and memorie of our auncesters did earnestly seeke 
and desire, were nowe neglected and the price 
thereof abated, although by us carried to their 
ownc portes, and all forreine merchandizes in great 
accompt and their j^rises wonderfully raised ; cer- 



23 

taine graue citizens of London, and men of great 
wisedome, and carefull for the good of tlieire coun- 
trey, began to tliinke with themselves howe this 
mischiefe might be remidied. Neither was a remi- 
die (as it then appeared) wanting to their desires, 
for the auoyding of so great an inconvenience : for, 
seeing that the wealth of the Spaniards and Por- 
tingalse, by the discouerie and search of newe trades 
and conntreys was marueilously increased, suppos- 
ing the same to be a course and meane for them 
also to obteine the like, they thereupon resolued 
wpon a newe and strange nauigation. And where- 
as at the same time one Sebastian Cabota, a" man 
in those dayes very renowned, happened to be in 
London, they began first of all to deale and consult 
diligently with him, and after much S23eQche and 
conference together, it was at last concluded that 
three shippes should bee prepared and furnished 
out, for the search and discouerie of the northerne 
part of the world, to open a way and passage to 
our men for trauaile to newe and unknowen king- 
domes." ^ 

Thus it happened that as early as the 10th of 
May, 1553, before the association was formally re- 



1 Hakluyt, I, 248. 



24 

cognized by the Crown, it had despatched an ex- 
pedition^ under Sir Hugh Willoughby, Captain 
General of the Fleet' to prosecute the above design. 



1 Ilakluyt, I, 226-230, has carefully preserved the " Ordi- 
nances, Instructions, and Aduertisements of and for the 
Direction of the intended Voyage for Cathay, compiled, made 
and deliuered by the right worshipful! M. Sebastian Cabota, 
Esquier, Gouernour of the misterie and companie of the 
Marchants aduenturers for the discoverie of Regions, Dommiu- 
ions, Islands and places vnknowen, the 9. day of May, in the 
yere of our Lord God 1553." 

2"Nowe this prouision being made and canned aboord, with 
armoure and ammunition of all sorts, sufficient Captaines and 
Gouernours of so great an enterprise were yet wanting: to 
which office and jilace, although many men offered themselves, 
yet one Sir Hugh Willoughby, a most valiant gentleman, and 
well borne, uery ernestly requested to have that care and 
charge committed to him: of whom before all others, both by 
reason of his goodly personage (for he was of a tall stature) as 
for his singular skill in the services of war, the company of 
the 31archnnts [of Muscovia] made greatest accompt; so that 
at the last they concluded and made choyce of him for the 
Generall of this voyage and cqypointed to him the Admirall, with 
authoritie and command ouer all the rest." — Clement Adams. 
Hakluyt, I, 243-244, ed. 159'J. 

In all expeditions consisting of more than two vessels, one 
was appointed to lead, and was denominated the Admiral; 
another was elected to keep a look-out astern; and was known 
as the Vice-Admiral. The officer in command of the entire 
fleet was named the Genercd, and he sailed in the .Admiral. 
The second in command, was styled the Lieutenant General, 
and he sailed in the Vice-Admiral. For an exceedingly interest- 
ing article entitled " Shipping," see appendix, Note A, to Run- 
dall's very valuable work, Voyages to the North West, 229. 



25 

After untold hardships and terrific sufierings, 
two of tliese vessels, with their crews and their 
leader Sir Hugh, reached an obscure harbor on 
the desolate coast of Lapland. Here he sent out 
in a south-south-westerly direction, three men 
to search for some inhabitants, who went three 
da^s journey but could find none. Afterwards, 
three others were dispatched four days' journey to 
the west, who also returned without finding any 
people. Three men next proceeded three days' 
journey to the south-east, who in like sort, re- 
turned without finding any signs of habitation. 
Thus helpless, hopeless and abandoned, they were 
found by some Russian fishermen who, attracted 
by the absence of all appearance of life, boarded 
the ships and discovered the unfortunate men frozen 
to death. The corpse of the gallant Willoughby 
was seated, it is said, at a table in the cabin, with a 
pen in its hand and the ship's Journal before it, on 
whose pages was traced the story of the unavailing 
efforts to find escape from the approaches of an ap- 
palling death. The ships, with the dead bodies and 
most of the goods, were sent to England by the com- 
pany's agent at Moscow, but being unstaunch by 
their two years wintering in LajDland, the unfor- 



26 

tunate vessels sunk by the way with their dead 
and them also that brought tliem.^ . 

A happier fate befell the third vessel of the 
squadron, the Edward Bonaventure, which carried 
Richard Chancellor, pilot-major of the fleet, and 
was commanded by Stephen Burrough, whose sub- 
sequent discoveries rendered him famous. This 
ship succeeded in entering safely the Bay of St. 
Nicholas, since better known as the White Sea, 
and on the 24th of August, 1553, arrived at 
the western mouth of the River Dwina. From 
this point Richard Chancellor made his way 
overland to the court of the Emperor of Russia, 
where a most cordial reception awaited him, 
of which he afterwards wrote an interesting ac- 
count, contained in " The booke of the great and 
mighty Emperor of Russia and Duke of Mosco- 
uia."^ 

Though the failure of Willoughby's part of the 
Muscovy Company's first expedition was peculiarly 
distressing, yet the success of that portion under 
the command of Richard Chancellor laid the 
foundations of the Company's prosperity, and of the 



1 Hakluyt, I, 236, 237, ed. 1599. Milton's Brief History of 
3Inscoina, p. 597. 

2 Hakluyt, 1,237. 



27 

commercial and political relations which, with but 
slight interruptions, have continued to exist be- 
tween Russia and England to the present day.^ 

Soon after the inauguration of intercourse be- 
tween these countries, which was not only to 
exercise great influence over individuals, but also 
materially to affect the destinies of two power- 
ful nations, the Company of Merchant Adventurers, 
called also The Society for the Discovery of TJn- 
hnaimi Lands, obtained from Queen Mary, a Char- 
ter bearing date the 6th of February, 1555. In 
the same year the Emperor of Russia granted 
these incorporated English Merchants a formal 
Charter of Privilesfes to trade throughout his 
dominions,^ in accordance with the informal per- 
mission he had already given them in his letter 
to Edward VI, forwarded February, 1554, by the 
hands of Richard Chancellor. Subsequently, in 
the eighth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 



1 Hakluyt, I, 255, gives " The Copie of the Duhe of 31os- 
couie and Emperour of Russia his letters, sent to King Edicard 
the sixt, hy the hands of Richard Chancelour," dated February, 
1554, giving the English permission to trade. We find also 
in Hakluyt, I, 258, 259, '■'■Letters of King Philip and Quecne 
Marie " to the Emperor of Russia, written April 1st, 1555, 
and sent by Richard Chancellor, George Killingworth and 
Richard Graie. 

2 Hakluyt, I, 265-267, ed. 1599. 



28 

1566, they procured an act of Parliament, in 
which they were styled, The FeUowsldp of English 
Merchants For Discovery of New Trades. Under 
this title they still continue, although, as I have 
already said, they are hetter known by the desig- 
nation of the Muscovy or Russia Company. 

It is in the first Patent or Charter from 
Queen Mary given in the year 1555, that the 

name of Henry Herdson occurs. 

From this Charter we learn that " William Mar- 
ques of Winchester Lord high Treasurer of this our 
Realme of England, Henrie Earle of Arundel Lo7^d 
Stewarde of our houseliolde, John Earle of Bedford 
Lord heeper of our j^riuie Scale, William Earle of 
Pembroke, William Lorde Howard of Effingham 
Lorde highAdmirallofoursaide Realme of England," 
were among the most active originators of the 
Company, and that the instrument of incorporation 
itself was given in answer to their humble peti- 
tion.^ 

Sebastian ' Cabota ' or Cabot, is named by the 
Charter first Governor of the Comj)any ; " George 
Barnes, Knight and Alderman of our Citie of Lon- 
don, William Garret, Alderman of our said Citie, 
Anthonie Husie, and John Suthcot," are consti- 

' Hakluyt, I, pp. 267, 208. 



29 

tilted ''' the first and present four Consuls of the said 
felowship;" and " Sir John Gresham, Knight, Sir 
AndreAv Judde, Knight, Sir Thomas White, Knight, 
Sir John Yorke, Knight, Thomas Offley the elder, 
Thomas Lodge, Henry Herdson, John Hopkins, 
William Watson, Will. Clifton, Richard Pointer, 
Richard Chamberlaine, William Mallorie, Thomas 
Pallie the elder, William Allen, Henry Becher, 
GeiFrey Walkenden, Richard Fowles, Rowland 
Heyward, George Eaton, John Eliot, John Sparke, 
Blase Sanders and Miles Hording," are ordained 
the first " twenty-four Assistants to the saide Gou- 
ernour." ^ 

The intentions of the Company to send out ex- 
peditions to the Northwards, North-eastwards, and 
North-westwards are clearly indicated by this Char- 
ter ; and protection is expressly guaranteed^ against 
the interference of others in the searches in those 
directions. 

I have already particularly directed your atten- 
tion to the fact that the name of Henry Hudson, 
the founder of the Muscovy Company, is written 
Herdson by Hakluyt, Avhile it is sj)elled Hudson in 
The Proceedings Of Hie Caart <f Chancery In The 



1 Hakluyt, I, 268,269. 

2 Hakluyt I, 268, 272. 

5 



30 

Reign Of Elizabeth. This need occasion no surprise 
if we will remember that Lower derives Hudson 
from Roger, and that Camden refers it to Herd- 
ingson. But further than this, I have found the 
above individual and his s^ns under each of the 
following forms : Herdson, Herdsun, Herdsone, 
Herdsoun, Heardson, Hardson, Hudson ; and I have 
seen the name also spelled, Hodson, Hoddeson, Hod- 
slion, Hodgson, Hodgeson, Hudgeson, Hogsdon, 
Hogeson, Hodisdon, Hodesdon, Hoddesdon, Hod- 
desdonn, Hoddesden, Huddesdon/ In fact my in- 
vestigations have developed a still more incon- 
ceivable variety of methods, but I am content 
to cite the preceding twenty-one examples, for the 
purpose of illustrating the constant changes which 
English names underwent in that age, ^ and to show 
how exceedingly dijfficult it is to recognize always 
the person for whom we are searching. It was 
not indeed uncommon in the 16th century even, 
for a man to spell his own name differently at dif- 
ferent periods of his life. Many interesting facts 



1 Hakluyt, Proc. Ct. Ch., Rg. of Eliz. Machyn's Diaiy. 
Magna Britannia. Sims' Index to Heraldic Vii^ifafions. The 
TojMgrapher and Genealogist., London, 1853. Stew's Survey 
of London. 

2 Mr. Caylcy when speaking of Sir Walter Ralegh's name 
says: " Few names vary so much in the manner of writing it. 



31 

doubtless escape the attention of students, simply 
because the person to whom they relate is effect- 
ually disguised by the uncouth spelling of his 
name. Bearing this in mind I have endeavored to 
identify my personages under all circumstances. 

The Henry Hudson^ who is named in Queen 
Mary's charter as one of the founders and first As- 
sistants of the Muscovy Company, was a man of 
large wealth and extended influence.^ He was a 



We liave seen it written iu thirteen different ways, namely : 
Ralegh, Raleghe, Raleigh, Rawleigh, Rawlie, Rawley, Rawly, 
Rauleighe, Rale, Real, Reali, Ralego. His original letters in 
the Harleian Collection, and his MS. Journal of his Second 
Voyage, prove that Sir Walter himself wrote Ralegh. In his 
commission for his second journey to Guiana it is written in 
Rymer's Fcedera^ Rawleigh, while the commission is headed : 
' De Commissione Speciali dilecto Waltero Rawley Militi con- 
cerneute Voiagium Guianianum.' Sir Arthur Georges in a 
letter to Sir Robert Cecil writes it Rawly. In the copy of Sir 
Walter's arraignment. Sir Thomas Overbury writes the name 
Rawleigh. In the scarce pamphlet, ' Newes of Sir Walter 
Rauleigh,' it is spelt in the manner just mentioned. Fray Si- 
mon calls him " Real o Reali," Gili " Ralego." King James 
in his Declaration writes the name Raleigh, which orthography 
Sir Walter's son Carew seems to have adopted. Sir Robert 
Naunton and Lord Bacon write Rawleigh. We have adopted 
the orthography of Sir Walter himself." Note, pp. xiv, xv, 
Ralegh's Dhcocer}/ of Guiana. Hak. Soc. Pub. London, 1848. 

' I use this spelling to avoid confusion. 

-I have been unable to find any connected account of him; 
the information in the text is gleaned from a great variety of 
sources. 



32 

citizen of London, and a member of the corpora- 
tion of Skinners, or Tanners,^ one of the twelve 
privileged Companies from which alone the Lord 
Mayor can be chosen.^ 

" This Company of Skinners," says Stow, " was 
incorporate by Edward the 3. in the first of his 
reigne ; they had two Brotherhoods of Corpus 
Christi, viz. one at St. Mary Spittle,^ the other at 
St. Mary Bethlem, without Bishopsgate. Rich- 



1 The Skinners, or Tanners, vide " Diary of Henry ]Machyn, 
A. D. 1550 to 1563." Camden Soc. Pub. 1848, page 99. 

~ There are in the City of London seventy-two Companies of 
which twelve are the Chief, who have this Preeminence that 
the Lord-mayor must always be free of one of them, for if it hap- 
pens that a Mayor be elected out of any other Company, he 
must remove to one of those twelve, before he can be sworn and 
act. These Companies are, 

1. Mercers. 7. Merchant Taylors. 

2. Grocers. 8. Haher dashers. 

3. Drapers. 9. Sailers. 

4. Fishmongers. 10. Ironmongers. 

5. Goldsmiths. 11. Vintners. 

6. Skinners. 12. Cloathwor/cers. 

The other Companies are equal to these in other Privileges, 
all of them enjoying large Immunities and Benefits by their 
Royal Charters granted to them severally, and most of them 
have fair Halls to meet in for the regular Government of their 
members. 

Acct. of London, Magna Britannia, III, pp. 75, 76. Edi- 
tion of 1738. 

3 Hospital. 



33 

ard the Second, in the eighteenth of his reigne, 
granted them to make their two Brotherhoods 
one, by the name of the Fraternity of Corpus 
Christl of Skinners. Divers royall persons were 
named to bee Founders, and Brethren of this 
Fraternity, to wit ; Kings sixe, Dukes nine, Earles 
two, Lords one. Kings, Edward the third, Rich- 
ard the second, Henry the fifth, Henry the sixth, 
and Edward the fourth."^ 

Mr. Hudson served as an Alderman ^ and would 
undoubtedly have been elected to the Mayoralty 
had his life been spared. Like his contemporary 
Sir John Gresham the elder, uncle of the cele- 
brated Sir Thomas Gresham, Mr. Hudson having 
amassed a great fortune in trade, became the pur- 
chaser of extensive landed estates. I find in the 
Magna Britannia, published in 1738, that after 
the suppression of the Monasteries, the crown 
granted the forfeited church lands at Hitchin, in 
the County of Hertfordshire, to Edward Watson 
and Henry Hudson, Gentleman.^ 



1 Stow's Survey of London, 248, ed. 1633. 

2 Machyn's Diary, p. 99. Proc. Ct. Chancery, Keigo of 
Eliz., vol. II, p. 24. 

^ '■'• Ritclibi ; here are two small Priories, the one of white 
Carmelites, founded by John Blomville, Adam Rouse, and John 
Cohham, and dedicated to our Saviour, and the blessed Virgin 



34 

Sir Bernard Burke, in his account of the Dix- 
well Family, speaks of Henry Hudson Esq., of 
Stourton, in Lincolnshire} Although I have been 
unable to trace him to that locality, owing doubt- 
less to the absence of the proper authorities, I am 
decidedly of the opinion that Henry Hudson pos- 
sessed property in that neighborhood at an early 
period; I arii the more firmly convinced of the 
fact, as it explains the constant intercourse, and 
intimate business relations, evidently existing be- 
tween him and Edward, Lord Clinton, who built 
the fine mansion at Sempringham,^ and had other 
great estates in Lincolnshire. 

To use the words of Mr. Burgon in his life of 
Sir Thomas Gresham : " This may be as proper a 
place as any other to mention, that my reading 



and King Edward II, confirm'd the Endowments. These 
Monks held this House till 21 Henry VIII, when it was sur- 
render'd to that King, being valued at £4. 9s. 4d. lier Ann. 
After the Dissolution, it was granted to Edward Watson and 
Ilenry Ilerdson Gent., who conveyed it to the Radcliffs, in 
which family it still remains. Sir Ba/j)h Radcllff being the 
present owner." 

Magna Britannia, Act. of Hertfordshire, ed. Lon. 1738, II, 
1027. 

1 Burke's Extinct and Dormant Baronetage, 161, 1(52. 
London, 1838. 

^ Magna Britannia, II, 141G. London ed., 1738. 



35 



has led me to quite a diflferent conclusion re- 
specting the estimation in which merchants were 
formerly held, to that entertained by the elegant 
author of Illustratioyis of British History. Mr. 
Lodge considers that the nobility of other days 
kept themselves at a distance from even the first 
members of the commercial order ; ^ but I believe 
the contrary will be established by the following 
pages. What is strange, the nobles appear among 
the most enterprising speculators, and were them- 
selves traders on the grandest scale. In Queen 
Mary's reign, for instance, when the Muscovy 
merchants were incorporated (that is to say, the 
first English company which traded to Russia), the 
most powerful of the nobility stand foremost in 
the list of members." ^ 

" The Earls of Leicester and Shrewsbury sent out 
joint-adventures to Muscovia in 1574; on which 
occasion the first-named peer writes to his friend, 
''I assure you if I had had 10,000?. in my purse, I 
wold have adventured it every peny myself.^' " 

Mr. Hudson's friend '' Lord Clinton and Say," 



1 Illustrations of British History, vol. Ill, p. 151, Note. 
2Stryp's Stowe, ed. 1720, ch. v., 260. 

' Lodge's Illustrations, vol. IT, p. 46. Burgon's Life of Sir 
Thomas Gresham, vol. I, 47,48. 



36 

is frequently mentioned by Macliyn.^ He was 
created Lord High Admiral of England by pat- 
ent the 14th of May (4 Edw. VI), 1550; and re- 
tained that office until the 10th of March, 1554; 
when he was succeeded by Lord Howard of Effing- 
ham. He was again appointed Lord Admiral by 
Philip and Mary in 1558; and was continued by 
Queen Elizabeth, who advanced him, in the 14th 
year of her reign, to the earldom of Lincoln. He 
was one of her Majesty's Privy Council ; and one of 
those appointed for the trial of the Duke of Nor- 
folk. He died while in office in the year 1585.^ 

From Lord Chnton, who was, by the way, an an- 
cestor of the late Duke of New Castle,'^ who accom- 
panied the Prince of Wales to this Country, Mr. 
Hudson purchased the manor of Bertrams and the 
manor of Newington juxta Hitli, or Neiolngton Bel- 
house, in the " Lathe," or Hundred of Shepway, 
County of Kent.* From the same nobleman, he 



1 Machyn'.s Biar>/, pages G, 7, 0, 20, 31, 35, 79, 143, 197," 
202, 207, 233. 

2 Lists of Officer^ of State during the period covered by 
Machyn's Diary. Prepared by John Gough Nichols, F. S. A. 
Camden Soc. Pab., 1848, page xvi. Magna Britannia, II, 14- 
42, Lond., ed. 1737. For an extended account of Clinton, see 
Lodge, II. 

3 JJurke's Peerage and Baronetage. 

^Mag. i?r*V., II, 1184, 1185. 



37 

bought the ancient manors of SteJtlng, AchJiangtr, 
Terlingliam, and the still more venerable and ex- 
tensive manors of Folkston and Walton} He was 
also Lord of the manor of Sweton? 

Alderman Henry Hudson died m the City of 
London, of a peculiar kind of malignant fever, 
which raged with such violence in the metropolis, 
that seven aldermen, Hudson, Dobbs Laxton, Hob- 
blethorne, Champneys, Ayloffe, and Greshara,^ 
fell victims to it, within the space of ten months.* 



1 J%. Brit., II, pages, 1178, 1183, 1184. 

2 Proc. Court of Chancer ij, Reign of Elizabeth, II, 24. No. 56. 
'^ Sir John CTi-eshaui, the elder, deceased the 23d October, 

1555. He was Sheriff of London in 1537, and was knighted 
while in office. h\ 1547, while Lord Mayor, he revived the 
splendid pageant of the Marching Watch. Stow's Survfy, ed. 
1720, quoted by Burgon. Sir John Gresham, Senior, should 
not be confounded with his nephew Sir John Gresham, whose 
name heads the list of Assistants of the Muscovy Company in 
Queen Mary's Charter. The younger Sir John was born in 
1518, received the honor of Knighthood from the Protector 
Somerset, on the field, after the victory of Musselburgh, in 1547. 
Like the rest of his family he was a mercer and merchant- 
adventurer. He died in the year 1560. Burgon's Life of Sir 
Thos. Gresham, I, 369, 370. 

■1 Machyn's Diary. Notes, page 353. Burgon's Life of Sir 
Thomas Gresham, I, 19. 

"The last year began the bote burning feuers whereof, died 
many olde persons, so that in London died seven Alderman, in 
the space of tenue moneths." Howe's Abridge. Stow's 
Chronicle, p. 276, London, 1618. 
6 



38 



Machyn gives the following account of the im- 
posing ceremonies observed at his funeral : " The 
XX day of Dessember [1555] was bered at sant 
Donstones in the Est master Hare Herdsun, al- 
therman of London and skynner, and on of the 
masturs of the hospetall of the gray frers ^ in Lon- 
don, with men and xxiiij women in mantyll fresse^ 
gownes, a hersse of wax/ and hong with blake ; 



1 Grey Friars. The following Latin sepulchral inscription 
found in the Church of the Grey Friars, London, refers per- 
haps to the parents of this Henry Hudson : "Roudolfi Hud- 
son civis et aurifate, Lond. et Elizabeth us eius; qui ob 27, 
June 153°." Vide Collectanea Topographica et Genealogical 
Y, 392. 

In this connection it may be proper to mention that the ac- 
count of the " Meeting of Henry VIII, and Charles V" 
(given page 57, Rutland Papers, Camden Soc. Publications, 
London, 1842), contains a notice of the attendance upon the 
English King during his pleasant visit to Gravelines on the 
10//t of July, 1520, in which an allusion is made to a William 
Hodgeson or Hudson as ' Chiefe Officer of the T3otrye.' Thomas 
More is also spoken of as 'Chiefs Officer of the Pitcher House,' 
and Thomas Weldon, an ancestor of sir Anthony, the libeller 
of the Stuarts, is referred to as holding an office apparently of 
inferior rank in the ewry. 

2 Probably frieze made purposely for mantles. 

3The Hearse was, on grand occasions, ready to receive the 
corpse when it arrived within the Church ; having been erected 
a day or two before. It was a frame " made of timber, and cov- 
ered with black, and armes upon theblacke." The term "herse 
of wax," is one of continual recurrence, and is to be understood 
not of the material of the hearse itself, but of the candles and 



39 

aud tlier was my lord mare and the swordberer 
in blake, and dyvers odur althermeu in blake, and 
the resedew of the aldermen, atys berying ; and all 
the masters, boyth althermen and odur, with ther 
gren stayffes in ther handes, and all the chylderyn 
of the gray frersse, and iiij men in blake gownes 
bayryng iiij gret stayfFes-torchys bornyng, and 
then xxiiij men with torchys bornyng ; and the 
morowe iij masses songe; and after to ys plasse 
to dener ; and ther was ij goodly whyt branchys, 
and mony prestes and clarkes syngyng, 



"1 



tapers with which it was covered. What we now call a hearse 
is described by Machyu as, " a wagon Avith iiij wheels, all 
covered with blacke." 

1 " Henry Machyn, Citizen and Merchant-Taylor of London," 
was born in the year 1496 or 1498. He was probably " in that 
department of the trade of a merchant-taylor which we now call 
an undertaker or furnisher of funerals." The remarkable Diary 
of which he was the author, covers a period of thirteen event- 
ful years, viz. : from 1550 to 1563. It doubtless originated 
from the nature of the writer's business, and it is at first a mere 
record of the principal Funerals for which he was employed to 
provide. The first event of another kind commemorated is the 
committal of Bishop Gardiner to the Tower in Feb., 1550-1 j 
after which he enters every occurrence that struck him as de- 
serving of remembrance. Strype, the English Ecclesiastical 
Historian, incorporated in his works many passages from Ma- 
chyn's Diary, which have been frequently quoted by subsequent 
writers. 

The manuscript itself was in the Cottouian Library, and 
suffered somewhat iu the fire The injured leaves were kept 



40 

Mr. Hudson's widow Barbara afterwards married 
Alderman Sir Richard Champion/ Avho was elected 
Sheriff in 1558-9 ; Lord Mayor of London 1566 ; 
and died without issue in 1568.^ The lady Bar- 
bara was godmother to Thomas White, son of Sir 
John White, and nephew of the Sir Thomas White, 
whom we recognize as one of the Muscovy Com- 
pany's first Assistants.^ She erected a monument 
in St. Dunstan's in the East, with kneeling effigies 
of herself and both the aldermen her husbands. 

The arms of Henry Hudson were Argent, semee 
of fleurs-de-lis gules, a cross engrailed sable. ^ 



loose in a case until 1829, when they were carefully arranged, 
and inlaid, under the superintendence of Sir Frederick Madden, 
who bears witness to their value. 

In 1848, the Camden Society of London, printed the Diari/, 
from the original manuscript. The publication was edited by 
John Gough Nichols, F. S. A., who says ; " these records will 
afford valuable assistance to the family historian and genea- 
logist." I am indebted to Mr. Nichols' admirable Introduction 
and learned notes, for my information respecting Machyn, and 
the origin of his Diarij. 

1 Nichols' Notes to Machi/ns Diary, Camden Soc. Publica- 
tions, London, 1848, page 347. 

2 The Magna Britannia has it Oct. 30th, 1561. I prefer to fol- 
low the date given on his monument, viz : Oct. 30th, 1568. See 
Stow's Survey of London, p. 139, ed. 1633. 

3 Machyn's Diary, p. 248, Hakluyt I, 269, ed. 1599. 

4 Nichols' Notes to Machyns Diary, Cam. Soc. Pub. London, 
1848, page 347. List given by William Smith, Rouge-dragon. 



41 

The following account of the monument and its 
surroundings, with the poetical epitaphs, is pre- 
served in Stow's Survey of London} "On the 
South side of the Chancell, [of the Parish Church 
of St. Dunstan's in the East, Tower Street "Ward,"] 
Standeth an ancient Marble Tombe. * * * 
Close by it standeth another very faire Alabaster 
Tombe, richly and curiously gilded, and two an- 
cient figures of Aldermen in scarlet Kneeling, the 
one, at one end of the Tombe in a goodly Arch, 
the other, at the other end in like manner, and a 
comely figure of a Lady betweene them, who was 
wife to them both. By the one standeth a table, 
with this inscription : 

' " Here lyeth Henry Heardsons corys, 

ivithin this Tombe of iSione: 
His Soide {through faith in Christ's death,) 

to God in Heaven is gone. 
Whiles that he lived an Alderman, 

and Skinner ivas his state : 



" A Book in foL of 98 leaves, written in a fair hand on vel- 
lum, containing the Arms in Coulours and Pedigrees of Fami- 
lies in the County of Sussex, taken at a visitation A. D. 1634," 
is mentioned in the Catalogue Harleian MSS., vol. Ill, p. 335 
On page 24 of this document may be found The Arms and 
Pedigrees of the Hudson Family of Susses, which might throw 
much light on the subject under discussion. 
1 Stow's Survey of London, 138, 139, ed. 1633. 



42 

To Vertue bare hce all his love, 

to vice he bare his hate. 
His Almes that weekely he bestowed^ 

within this Parish here, 
3Iay witnesse to the jpoores releefe^ 

what good will hee did beare. 
He had to ivife one Barbara, 

which made tMs Tombe you see : 
By whom he had of issue store, 

eight sonnes and daughters three. 
Obiit 22. Decemb. An. Dom. 1555." 

By the other standeth the like Table thus in- 
scribed : 

The Corps of Richard Champion, Knight, 

Maior and Draper, herein doth rest: 
Whose soule by most assured hope, 

with Christ in Heaven is blest. 
His life was such, and so imployed, 

to right from wrong ; that hee 
"Whom God did so direct in life, 

must needs with comfort dye : 
Both rich and poore did like him well, 

and yet doe praise his name : 
Though he behinde him left no child, 

which might declare the same. 
His weekely almes that is bestowed, 

within this Parish here : 
Doth witnesse to the poores comfort, 

the good will hee did beare. 
Obii! 30 Octobris, An. Dora. 1568.^ 



1 The following is taken from the < Account of London ' given 
in Magna Britannia, vol. Ill, page 85. 



43 

It will be observed that according to Stow the 
name was spelled in the epitaph, Heardson. 
Stow, however, spells it elsewhere, Herdson and 

Hudson. 

The few facts which I have gleaned concerning 
Henry Hudson, Esquire, founder and Assistant of 
the Muscovy Company, exhibit his character in 
the most f.ivorable light. One thing is particularly 
noticeable ; although the lapse of three hundred 
years has left us a somewhat imperfect view of 
the man, it has failed to obliterate the record of 
his charities. We recognize in him one of the 
leading spirits of an age remarkable for its com- 
mercial enterprise ; but farther than this, our 
sympathies are enlisted in his behalf as having 
been distinguished, by great benevolence and gene- 
rosity of conduct, through a long and prosperous 
career. 

He was the friend and associate of men of the 
highest rank, and was held in great respect by 



" St. Dunstans iu the East, is situated between Thames 
Street and Tower Street. It is so called to distinguish it from 
another Church dedicated to the same Saint, standing in Fleet 
Street, and called aS^^ Dunsfan's in the Went. The monuments 
of note in this church are these, viz: For * * * * <^ir Rich- 
ard Champion, who gave £8, per annum. He died October 
30th, 1561. For Henri/ Eerchon, Alderman, who gave £22, 
6s. per Annum. He died December, 1555. 



44 

all classes. He was at the same time ready to 
relieve the poor, and treated those below him in 
station, with constant dignity and kindness. At 
his death he bequeathed to his family ample 
estates,^ and an unsullied reputation. 

This gentleman, whom Hakluyt tells us was 
one of the original Assistants of the Muscovy Com- 
pany, was, as I believe, the ancestor of Henry 
Hudson, who fifty-four years afterwards discovered 
Delaware Bay and Hudson's River. 

Henry Hudson, the elder, left three daughters, 
one of them, Abigail, married Charles Dixwell, 
Esq., of Coton, in the County of Warwick, and 
had issue. 

1. William, who inherited Coton, and was the 
ancestor of the Dixwells of Coton Hall, extinct 

Baronets. 

2. Edward, named after his mother's brother, Ed. 
Hudson. 

3. Humphrey. 

4. Basil. 



1 Burgon says of W. Read, Esquire, who died ten years earlier 
than Mr. Hudson ; " his clear annual income, derived from his 
own and his wife's estates in Suffolk, amounted to £138, 15s. 
4d., of which £67 per annum descended to his eldest son. 
Such was the income of a gentleman considered loealthij in the 
relfjn of Henry VllI, and such the expectations of his heir." 

-Vide Burke's Extinct and Dorrtiant Baronetage.^ page 161 



45 

5. Barbara, named after her grandmother Barbara 

Hudson. 

Henry Hudson, the elder, left eight sons. Three 
of these, viz: Thomas Hudscm, John Hudson, and 
Edward or Edmund Hudson, are mentioned in this 
order in the Calendar of Proceedings in the Court 
of Chancery, Re'ujn of Elizabeth} From the same 
source I learn that Thomas Hudson, Esq., con- 
veyed to his brother John Hudson, ' for certain 
purposes,' the manors of Newing Belhouse, New- 
ington Bartram, Newington Fee, Damyott, Bren- 
sett, Sachfilde, and Stepiars, in the County of 
Kent." This John Hudson dying without issue, 
bequeathed his estates to his sister's youngest son, 
Sir Basil Dixwell, Bart.,^ who transplanted him- 
self accordingly from the County of Warwick, to 
Terlingham in Kent County, where he continued 
until the year 1622, when he removed to Broome, 
in the same county, also a manor of his, on which 
he had recently erected a handsome mansion-house. 
He served the office of Sherifi' in the 2d 3^ear of 
Charles I, and was created a Baronet by that mon- 
arch, 18th February, 1627. He died unmarried 



J Cal. Proc. Court of Chanc, Rg. Eliz., II, 24. 
« Cal. Proc. Court of Chanc, Eg. Eliz., II, 62. 
3 Mwjna Britannia, II, 1178, 1183, 1184, 1185. 

7 



46 

in 1641, when the Baronetcy became extuict, and 
his estates devolved, under his will, upon his ne- 
phew, Mark Dixwell, Esq., son of his brother Wil- 
liam, who married Elizabeth, daughter of M. Read, 
and sister of W. Read Esq., of Folkestone, and was 
the ancestor of Sir Henry Oxenden, Bart., the 
present possessor of the ancient estates of John 
Hudson, the male line of the Dixwells having failed.^ 
I have no definite information relative to Ecl- 
ward Hudson, the third son of Henry Hudson, the 
elder. George, Edmund, John," and William Hud- 
son,^ infants, were parties, however, in a suit in the 



1 Burke's Ex. and Dormant Baronetage, pp. 161, 162. 

" A. D. 1575, June 3. We find a John Hudson in the list of 
Masters of Art, under the above Date: -^ John Hudson of 
Broadgatcs Hall. He was afterwards vicar of Patcham in 
Sussex and Author of A Sermon At Pauls Cross on Hebrews, 
10: 19, Land. 1584, Oct., and perhaps of other matters." 
Wood's Athense Ox., vol. I, p. 738. 

3 The following extracts suggest the idea, that the William 
Hudson mentioned therein, is identical with the William Hud- 
son in the text, and that he, and his son Christopher Hudson, 
also mentioned therein, were members in a later generation of 
the same family to which Christopher Hudson, of the Muscovy 
Company's Service, belonged. 

" A Treatise on the Court of the Star Chamber, written by 
Wm. Hudson, of Greys Inn, Esq., and containing a very full 
and elaborate account of that tribunal." " This Treatise or 
survey of the Court of Star Chamber, will, upon reading, ap- 
pear to be wrote in a masterly yet humble manner, and by im- 



47 

reign of Queen Elizabeth, to enforce the payment of 
legacies out of the estate of their father Edmund 
Hudson. It may be that this Edmund Hudson 
and Edward Hudson were one and the same per- 
son. This seems the more probable, as the resi- 
dence of the Edmund Hudson above mentioned 
was in Essex, the county adjoining Kent, in which 
John Hudson lived. ^ 

We have seen that Thomas Hudson^ the eldest 
son of Henry Hudson, Senior, conveyed to Jolin 
Hudsmi certain lands, and that he afterwards 



partial readers to be approved. It was begun in the reign of 
K. Ja. 1st and finished early in the reign of Ch. 1st." Lans- 
dotcne CatoJ. It appears from the work itself that Hudson was 
a barrister and a practitioner in the Court of the Star Chamber. 
Some further account of him may be seen in a note by Hum- 
phrey Wanley, which follows the above by Mr. Umfreville, and 
also in the Harl. Catal. of MS.. No. 1226." Catalogue of the 
Lansdoicne 3IS., in the British Museum, No. 622. Win. 
Hudson is mentioned in No. 639, fol. Lansdoione Catal., as 
" one of the Registers of the Court of Star Chamber." 

" This Treatise was compiled by Wm. Hudson of Grais 
Inne, Esq., one very much practized and of great experience 
in the Star Chamber; and my very aflPectionate friend. His 
Sonne and heyr Mr. Christopher Hudson (whose handwryting 
this booke is), after his father's death gave it to mee 19th De- 
cembris, 1635. Jo. Finch." Catal. Harleian MSiS., No. 1226, 
vol. I, p. 612. 

^ Froc. Cf. Ch., Rg. Eliz., II, 84. These calendars, un- 
fortunately, do not indicate the dates of the papers preserved 
in them, except in a few instances. 



48 

brought suit against this younger, brother in the 
Court of Chancery, to settle sundry accounts grow- 
ing out of the transfer/ This is all we positively 
know in reference to the matter. It is possible 
that TJimnas Hudson had become embarrassed, and 
had been obliged to give up his share of the inher- 
itance to his brother, "^ with the stipulation that he 
should receive a certain sum, equal to the excess 
in value of the property over the amount of his 
indebtedness, and that it was to recover this money 
that the suit was brought. 

However this may have been, Thomcis Hudson 
seems to have been living nine or ten years after 
his father's death, at Mortlake in Surry, in those 
days a pretty little village, on the Thames, six 
and a half miles from London, between Putney 
and Richmond. The following entry occurs in 
the Private Diary of Doctor John Dee, the famous 



^ Proc. Ct. of Cha7ic., Rg. of Eliz., vol. II, page 62. 

-The Privileges of Gavel-kind belonging to the County of 
Kent are threefold: 1. The Heirs male share all the lands 
alike. 2. The Heir is at 15 at full age to sell or alienate. 3. 
Though the Father were convicted of Treason, yet the Son en- 
joys his Inheritance : Hence that Proverb, the Father to the 
Bought and the Son to the Plough. These three Privileges, 
granted and confirmed to them by William the Conqueror, are 
denominated Gavel kind. Present State of Great Britain, by 
John Chamberlayne, Esq. London, 1748, p. 15. 



49 

philosopher of Mortlake, with whom Thomas Hud- 
son was on intimate terms : '' [A. D. 1564] Jmie 
20th, Mr. Hudson, hora septima ante meridiem."^ 
This was one of the many notes of nativities made 
by the Doctor, who was constantly consulted pro- 
fessionally as an astrologer. 

Doctor Dee was a man of great learning and ex- 
tensive acquirements. He was particularly distin- 
guished for his geographical attainments, while his 
opinion, on a variety of matters of state, was fre- 
quently asked by Sir Francis Walsingham, and 
Queen Elizabeth herself. He was the cherished 
friend and adviser of the principal navigators of his 
time, and w^as actively engaged in promoting the 
objects of the Muscovy or Russia Ccmipany} In- 
deed Hakluyt has preserved "Certaine briefe 
addresses given by Master Dee, to Arthur Pet, and 
Charles Jackman, to bee observed in their North- 
easterne discouerie. Anno 1580;'"^ and from his 
own Diary we learn that on the 17th of May, 1580, 
he was at the Company's House in London, on 



1 Private Diary of Doctor John Dee, Camden Soc. Pub., 
1842, page 2. 

2 For a Notice of Doctor Dee see Appendix. 

3 Hakluyt, vol. I, p. 437. 



60 

business concerning the Cathay voyage,^ Two 
weeks later Pet and Jackman sailed from Harwich, 
in the Company's employ, in search of a north-east 
passage to China or Cathay, taking with them a 
Chart which the Doctor had constructed for their 
guidance.^ 

Frequent reference is made by the Doctor to 
certain pecuniary transactions between himself 
and Thomas Hudson. March 12th, 1581, he re- 
cords: ''All reckenings payd to Mr. Hudson, £11, 
17s."^ After his return from the continent he 
has the following: "June 28th, [1590] I payd 
Mr. Hudson for all his corn, and also for the wood 
tyll May, receyved synce I cam home."^ March 
21st, 1591, he says: "Remember that on Passion 
Sunday, being the 21st of March, by our accownt, 
all things was payd for to Mr. TJwmas Hudson for 
wood and corne, abowt £14, at his howse when he 
was syk of the strangury."^ In this connection 
it is interesting to note the entry for February 



1 [1580] " May 17th, at the Moscovy howse for the Cathay 
voyage." Priv. Diary^ page 7, Cam. Soc. Pub., 1842. 

2 Side Note. Hakluyt, vol. I, p. 437. 

3 Private Diary, p. 11. 

4 Priv. Diary, p. 84. 

5 Priv. Diary, p. 38, 



51 

21st, 1593, which refers to the greatest English 
mathematician of tliat day: "I borrowed £10. of 
Mr. Thomas Digges^ for one whole yere."^ 

The extracts from the Diary which are given 
in the appendix,^ reveal the character and stand- 
ing of the men with whom Tliomas Hudso7i and 
Dr. Dee were daily in the habit of associating. 
When taken in connection with the ensuing quo- 
tations, they clearly indicate that the friendship 
existing between these two, had its origin in the 
interest which they mutually felt in the Muscovy 
or Russia Company. The curious document from 
which they are taken, repeatedly mentions Sir 
Humphrey Gilbert, "Mr. Secretary" Sir Francis 
Walsingham, Mr. Hakluyt, Mr. Adrian Gilbert, 
Captain John Davis, Richard Candish, and his fa- 
mous nephew Thomas Candish, Sir George Peck- 
ham, Sir John Gilbert, and Sir Walter Ralegh, as 
members of a circle, wherein Thomas Hudson 
figured prominently. We are allowed to look in 
upon the great men of England, and the next para- 
graph even affords us a familiar view of good Queen 



1 He was father of Sir Dudley Digges who was a principal 
promoter of Henry Hudson's last voyage in lGlO-11. 

2 Priv. Diary^ p. 43. 

3 See Appendix. 



52 

Bess herself: "Feby. 11th, [1583] the Quene 
lying at Richmond went to Mr. Secretary Walsing- 
ham to dynner ; she coming by my dore ^ gra- 
tiously called me to her, and so Iioent hy her horse 
side as far as where Mr. Hudson dweltr'^ 

I have reserved perhaps the most interesting 
memoranda, so far as our immediate subject is con- 
cerned, until now. 

"Jan. 23d [1583], the Right Honorable Mr. 
Secretary Walsingham, cam to my howse, where 
by good lok he found Mr. Awdrian Gilbert, and so 
talk was begonne of Norili-west Straights discovery. 
The Bishop of St. Davyd's (Mr. Middleton) cam 
to visit me with Mr. Thomas Herbert. The Lord 



1 " Dr. Dee dwelt in a house neere the water side, a little west- 
ward from the church at Mortlake. The buildings which Sir 
Francis Crane erected for working tapestry hangings, and are 
still (1673) employed to that use, were built upon the ground 
whereon Dr. Dee's laboratory and other roomes for that use 
were built. Upon the west side is a square Court, and the next 
is the howse wherein Dr. Dee dwelt, now inhabited by one Mr. 
Selbury, and further west his garden. * * * * * * 
Dr. Dee was wel beloved and respected of all persons of quality 
thereabouts, who very often invited him to their houses or came 
to his." il/>S. Ashm., 1788, fol. 149. in Cam. Soc. Pub., 1842. 
Notes, by J. 0. Ilallowell. 

The two extracts might enable one on the spot acquainted 
with the ancient landmarks, to identify Mr. Hudson's resi- 
dence. 

'^ Frivate Dkuy^ pp. 18, 19. 



53 

Grey cam to Mr. Secretary, and so they went unto 
Greenwich. Jan. 24th, I, Mr. Awdrian Gilbert, 
and John Davis went by appointment to Mr. Sec- 
retary to Mr. Beale his howse, where onely we 
four were secret, and we made Mr. Secretary 
priuie of the N. W. passage, and all charts and 
rutters were agreed uppon in generall. March Gth, 
I, and Mr. Adrian Gilbert and John Davis did 
mete with Mr. Alderman Barnes, Mr. Townson, 
and Mr. Yong, and Mr. Hudson, ahowt tlie N. W. 
voyage."^ 

We are here made acquainted with the origin 
of the famous voyages of John Davis, and sin- 
gularly enough, in the light of subsequent events, 
discover TliomojS Hudson consulting with that cele- 
brated navigator in reference to a search for a 
North-west passage to China or Catha}^ We 
shall hereafter recognize the influence of Davis's 
subsequent explorations upon Henry Hudson, and 
learn that it Avas in attempting to find a passage 
to the westward and northward twenty-six years 
after the above project was entertained by his 
relative Thomas Hudson, that Henry Hudson made 
his discoveries of Delaware and New York.^ 



1 Private Diary of Dr. John Dee, pp. 18, 19. 

- Captain John Davis made his three well known voyages to 
the North-west in 1585, 158G, and 1587. 



54 

I have already referred to the fact that a Cap- 
tain Thomas Hudson, of Limehouse, in the Muscovy 
or Russia Company's employ, is frequently men- 
tioned in a very interesting account of the 6th 
voyage set on foot by that Company 'into the parts 
of Persia and Media.' The report of the expedi- 
tion as given by Hakluyt was " gathered out of 
sundrie letters written by Cliristojilier Burrough, 
seruant^ to the saide companie, and sent to his 
Vncle Master William Burroughs '^ 

It appears that Arthur Edwards, William Turn- 
bull, Matthew Talboys, and Peter Gerard, Agents 
and Factors of the above Corporation, sailed from 



It was in the latter year that sailing across the mouth of what 
is now called Hudson's Sti-ait he saw to his great admiration 
' the sea falling downe into the gulfe with a mighty overfall 
and roaring, and with diver circular motions like whirlpools, 
in such sort as forcible streams pass through the arches of 
bridges.' Henry Hudson as we shall see. referred to this in his 
journal of his second voyage, as the " furious over-fall of Captain 
Davis." 

1 Hakluyt, vol. I, page 419, ed. of 1599. 

~ At that period, officers whom we now designate as Agents. 
Commissioners, etc., w^ere often in a general way termed 
Servants. Sir Richard Clough, in his last will, calls Sir 
Thomas Gresham his 'Master 'and styles himself 'servant.' 
In the same document Sir Richard mentiones his own brother 
by the latter designation. Vide Burgon's Life of Sir Tlios. 
Gresham, vol. I, page 236. 



55 

Gravesend on the 19 th June, 1579, reached what 
is now Archangel the latter part of July, and 
proceeded from thence, sometimes by river, some- 
times by land travel, to Astracan, a city near the 
mouth of the Volga, on the north-western shore 
of the Caspian sea; where they arrived on the 
16 til of October, and found ^in good order and 
readinesse ' the ship commanded by ' Thomas Hud- 
son, of Limehouse,' which the Company had 'pro- 
vided for the Persia voyage.' Having dined by 
invitation with the Chief Secretary of Duke Pheo- 
dor Micalouich, the Russian governor of Astracan, 
they were persuaded by him, in view of the near 
approach of the icy season and the unsettled con- 
dition of Media and Persia, to pass the winter at 
Astracan. 

- "The first day of May (1580), in the morning, 
having the shippe in readinesse to depart," they 
"invited the Duke and the principall Secretary 
Vasili Pheodorouich Shelepin, with other of the 
chiefest about the Duke to a banket aboord the 
ship, where they were interteined to their good 
liking, and at their departure was shot off all the 
ordinance of the ship, and about nine of the clocke 
at night the Same day they weyed anker, and 
departed with their ship from Astracan." After 



56 

various mishaps and detentions, arising from the 
shoals in the Volga and the bars at its mouth, 
"they bare off into the" Caspian "Sea " on the 17th 
May. It is not necessary to rehearse the subse- 
quent adventures of the party, from their de- 
parture in the ship under the command of Captain 
Thomas Hudson, until their return with him to As- 
tracan in the month of December following. For 
the particulars of their interesting voyage to Bil- 
dih and Derbent, their sufferings from shipwreck, 
their narrow escapes, their miraculous preservation 
from starvation, I refer you to the pages of Hak- 
luyt, taking occasion at the same time however, 
to call your particular attention to the courage, 
ability and coolness displayed by Captain Hudson 
at all times of peculiar danger. Indeed, it is not 
too much to say, that the safe return of the party 
was in a great measure owing to the gallant and 
skillful conduct of their leader. Having spent a 
second winter at Astracan, Thomas Hudson started 
from that city, with Wm. Turnbull, Matthew 
Talboys and others, in the month of March, 1581 ; 
and after nearly four months' journeying across 
Russia, reached the shores of the White Sea, and 
found in the ' rode of St. Nicholas,' almost ready 
to depart, certain Ships belonging to the Muscovy 



57 

Company. On the 26tli of July, 1581, Thomas 
Hudson^ sailed in the Thomas Allen, one of the 
Company's vessels, and reached England about 
the first of September. 

There is little doubt that Henry Hudson, the 
elder, had a son named Henry. Henry Hudson 
is mentioned by Stow, as a citizen of London, in 
the first year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 
1558-9. This was four or five years after the 
death of the elder Hudson ; and the son would 
appear to have been, at that time, a man of influ- 
ence and standing in the city. His name occurs 
in a list,'-^ of a dozen responsible persons, of that 
date, who were appointed by the Lieutenant of 
the Tower, the nominal Keepers, or bondsmen, as 
we should style them, for William Aston, a citizen 
of note, and " free of the Company of Haber- 
dashers." The same individual seems to have 
been plaintiif, in a suit in the Court of Chancery, 
against a certain Francis Ringsteed, concerning 



1 That Capt. Thomas Hudson, and Thomas Hudson, the 
friend of Dr. John Dee, were not the same, I am led to believe, 
from the entry in the Doctor's Diary, of the 12th March, 1581, 
viz.: "All reckenings payd to Mr. Hudson, £\\, 17s." 
Which leads one to think that that Mr. Hudson was then at 
home. 

2Stow's Survey of London, ed. 1633, p. 126. 



58 

some personal matters.^ As late as the year 1572 
1 find that Henry Hudson was one of the defend- 
ants in a suit brought in the same court, by Ed- 
ward Stanhope, who claimed, by purchase, the 
"farm in Gouxhill called the Abbey Garth, parcel 
of the monastery of Thorton," in Lincolnshire.^ 
This is suggestive, when we recall the fact that 
Burke, speaks of the elder Henry Hudson, as " of 
Stourton, in Lincolnshire." 

We have seen that the Muscovy Company was 
organized for the purpose of promoting the dis- 
covery of a short passage to India by the north, 
and that under the guidance of Richard Chancel- 
lor it early succeeded in gaining the good will of 
the Emperor of Russia. Having thus obtained a 
foothold in that country, the Company sent 
thither its Agents and Ships to develop a trade 
which in a few years grew to be immensely valua- 
ble. Before referring to another Hudson who fig- 
ured prominently in this portion of the Company's 
enterprise, let me distinctly state that the original 
idea of a northern passage to China was never 



2 Cal. Proc. Court of Chanc, Kg., Eliz. vol. II, p. 29. The 
name is here spelled Henry Hodgeson. 

3 Cal. Proc. Court of Chnnc, Rg. Eliz., vol. Ill, p. 45. The 
name here assumes the form of Henry Hogeson. 



59 

abandoned. Stephen Burrough was sent to prose- 
cute the search in 1556, but returned after having 
discovered 'Image Cape,' the north-eastern ex- 
tremity of the island of Vaigats in 70° 29' N. 
latitude, and the entrance into the White Sea, 
called after him Burrough's Strait. For several 
years indeed, after this voyage, the Muscovy 
Company turned its attention principally to the 
trade with the interior of the continent both in 
Europe and in Asia. The expedition under Cap- 
tain Thomas Hudson, of Limehouse, just described, 
is an example of this. The instructions, however, 
given on the occasion of the fitting out of two ex- 
peditions at intervals of twelve years, the first 
under James Bassendine, James Woodcocke and 
Richard Browne in 1568,^ and the second already 
mentioned under Pet and Jackman in 1580,^ are 
sufficient proofs that no opportunities nor means 
were neglected to obtain information, with a view 
to the eventual realization of the scheme which 
was the principal object in the original formation 
of the Company. 



1 Hakluyt, vol. I, pp. 382,383, ed. 1599. The date is here 
misprinted 1588. See also Dr. Beke's learned Introduction to 
De. Veers Voyages. Hak. See Pub., 1853. 

^ Hakluyt, vol. I, pp. 433, 434, 435. 



60 

One other important member of the Hudson 
family, himself a zealous upholder of the interests 
of the Muscovy Company, remains to be noticed, 
before we pass to the consideration of the character 
and purposes of Henry Hudson, the discoverer. 

The earliest allusion to Ghristo'plier Hudson is 
to be found in "the Letter of M. George Killing- 
worth, the Companies first Agent in Muscouie, 
touching their enterteinement in their second voy- 
age, Anno 1555. the 27, of November in Mosco." 
M. Killingworth writes from that city as fol- 
lows : "And the 28, day of September (1555) we 
did determine with ourselues that it was good for 
M. Gray, Arthur Edwards, Thomas Hautory, 
Christopher Hudson, John Segewicke, Eichard 
Johnson, and Richard Judde, to tarie at Vologda, 
and M. Chancelor,^ Henry Lane, Edward Prise, 
Robert Best, and I should goe to Mosco."^ In 
closing the letter he says : " And to certifie you 
of the weather here, men say that these hundred 
yeres was never so warme weather in this countrey 
at this time of the yere. But as yesternight wee 
received a letter from Christopher Hudson from a 



1 The word Master was then used, instead of the more modern 
Mister. The letter M. was the usual abbreviation. 

2 Ilakluyt, vol. IT, p. 263. 



61 

Citie called Yeraslaue, who is comming hither 
with certaine of our wares, but the winter did de- 
ceive him, so that he was faine to tarie by the 
way : and he wrote that the Eniperours present 
was deliuered to a gentleman at Vologda, and the 
sled did overthrow and the butte of hollocke^ was 
lost, which made us all very sory."^ 

There exists, however, an epistle written by 
Christopher Hudson in 1601, which gives a glimpse 
of his whereabouts the year previous to George 
Killingworth's letter, so that we may commence 
our acquaintance with him from the date which 
he himself names: — "in the yeare 1554, I came 
from Dansyck by land, through all the maryne 
townes [of Germany] ."^ 

In 1559 he would seem. to have been residing 
at Moscow. The following paragraph occurs in a 
communication addressed from that city on the 
18th of September, 1559, by '' Master Anthonie 
Jenkinson, vpon his returne from Boghar, to the 
Worshipful Master Henrie Lane, Agent for the 
Moscouie Companie, resident in Vologda : " * * * 



1 A sort of sweet wine. 

2 Hakluyt, vol. I, p. 265. 

^ Egerton Papers, Camden Society Publications, London, 
1840, p. 338. 



62 

"As touching the Companies affaires heere, I referre 
you to Christopher Hudson's letters, for that I am 
but newly arriued."^ 

Hakluyt has preserved also : " A letter of the 
Moscouie Companie to their Agents in Russia, 
Master Henrie Lane, Christoj)her Hudson, and 
Thomas Glouer,^ sent in their seuenth voyage to 
Saint Nicholas with three ships, the Swallowe, the 
Philip and Marie, and the Jesus, the fifth of May, 
1560." As it speaks of the internal affairs of the 
great corporation, and furnishes several facts 
about Christopher Hudson, no apology is offered 
for introducing the following quotations: "We 
hope in your next letters to heare good newes of 
the proceedings of Master Antonie Jenkinson.^ 



1 Hakluyt, vol. I, page 305. 

~ Thomas Glover went to Russia as a sei'vant of the Mus- 
covy Company ; but subsequently joined with others in carry- 
ing on an independent trade. As early as 1567, Queen 
Elizabeth complained to the Czar of this conduct of Glover 
and his associates, and that they had married Polish wives. Glo- 
ver was banished from Russia in ]573. See Hamel, pp. 186 to 
221; Bond's Notes to Horsey's Travels. 

^ Anthony Jenkinson was afterwards Ambassador from 
Queen Elizabeth to the Emperor of Russia from 1571 to 1572. 
Hakluyt, vol. I, p. 402. A very interesting resume of bis 
labors as the agent of the company, and as a sort of envoy to 
the Czar previous to the year 1565, is to be found in Mr. 
Edwin A. Bond's Introduction to the Hak. Soc. Pub. fur 1856, 
pp. iii, iv, v. 



63 

We perceive by his letters that Astracan is not so 
good a Mart towne as the same has gone of it : 
and maruell much that round pewter should be so 
good, and good chepe there, and from whence it 
should come. And whereas you write that you 
wil come for England in our next shippes, we 
would gladly have you to remaine there untill the 
next yere following, for the better instruction of 
our servants there; who have not had so long 
time of continuance for the language, and know- 
ledge of the people, countrey and wares as you 
have had. Nevertheless if you will needs come 
away, we have no doubt, but that you will have 
good order with our servants there, namely with 
Christopher Hoclson,^ and Thomas Glover, whom 
we appoint to remaine there as agents in your 
roome, till further order bee taken : not doubting 
but that they will use themselves so discreetly 
and wisely in all their doings, as shall be to the 
worship and benefite of this Company. And as 
we have a good hope in them that they will be 



Mr. Bond, in his notes to The Travels of Sir Jerome Horsei/, 
says : " It is believed that Anthony Jenkinson was, in the year 
15G7, intrusted by Ivan with secret orders to uegociate a mar- 
riage with Queen Elizabeth. See Hamel, p. 177. ct seq." 

i Chris. Ilodson and Thos. Glouer, (qypoiiited Agents, 1560. 
This is Hakluyt's side note, vol. I, page 807. 



64 

carefull, diligent and true in all their doings : So 
have we no lesse hope in all the reste of our ser- 
vants there, that they will bee not onely obedient 
to them (considering what roorae they be in) but 
also will be carefull, paineful, diligent, and true 
every one in his roome and place for the benefite 
and profite of the Company: That hereafter in 
the absence of others they may be called and 
placed in the like roome there or elsewhere. And 
if you find any to be disobedient and stubborne, 
and will not be ruled ; wee will you should send 
him home in our shipps : who shall find such 
small favour and friendships during the time that 
he hath to serve, as by his disobedience and evil 
service hee hath deserved. And loliereas Christo- 
'plier Hodsmi hath v^ritten to come home, as partly he 
he hath good cause, considering tlie death of his 
father and mother, yet in regard that Sir George 
Barne and the Ladie his wife, were his special 
friends in his absence, we doubt not but that he 
wil remain in the roome, which we have aj)pointed 
him, if you doe not tarie and remaine there, till 
farther order be taken: and for his seruice and 



1 Sir George Barne or Barns. John Barns was one of the 
crew in Henry Hudson's second voyage forty-eight years later, 
viz : in 1608. Vide Purchas, III, 574. 



65 

paines hee shall be considered, as reason is, as 
friendly as if his friends were living. Thus we 
trust you will take such order the one to remaine 
at the Mosco, and the other at Colmogro, or else- 
where, as most neede is. Thomas Alcocke is de- 
sirous to be in the Mosco : neverthelesse you shall 
find him reason^tble to serue where he may doe 
most good."^ 

We have here another illustration of the different 
modes of spelling the same name in the same doc- 
ument. The individual who is addressed as Chris- 
topher Hudson in the heading of the letter, is de- 
signated in the body of the same communication, 
and in Hakluyt's marginal note, as Christopher 
Hodson. Our researches will presently acquaint 
us with still further changes and irregularities in 
the spelling of this identical man's name. 

It would appear from the citations just given 
that Christopher Hudson, who had now been for 
several years confidentially employed in Russia, 
was appointed in 1560 an agent and representative 
of the Muscovy Company.^ The death of his 



1 Hakluyt I, page 305. 

- For an account of his duties, powers and authority, see 
the ' commission ' given by the Muscovy Company to their 
agents resident in Russia. Hakluyt I, 249. 



66 



father and mother is mentioned as the cause of his 
having written for leave to return home to England, 
but he is reminded that " Sir George Barne and 
the Ladie his wife, were his special friends in his 
absence," and he is assured that his services will be 
as fivorably regarded as though his friends were 
still living. I was at first inclined to believe that 
he was the son of Henry Hudson, the founder of 
the Muscovy Company, who died five years pre- 
vious to the date of this letter, but as the death of 
his mother is also spoken of, it could not be the case, 
since Henry Hudson's wife Barbara, survived her 
first husband, and was living in 1568 as the widow 
of Sir Richard Champion. 

It is probable that Christopher Hudson was the 
son of Sir Christopher Hudson, who was himself 
the son, or more probably the brother of the first 
Henry Hudson. My reasons for this supposition 
will be apparent from what follows. 

In the Calendars of Chancery Proceedings, 
Reign of Elizabeth, Volume Second, page fifty-four, 
it is recorded that Christopher Hoddesdon, Esq^'*^, 
was plain tifi" in a suit to recover lands in the Manor 
of Leighton alias Leighton Bussard held by him 
from the Dean and Canons of Windsor, Bedford 
county. In the third volume, i^age two hundred 



67 

and sixty-seven of the same work, Sir Christopher 
Hoddesclon, Knight, and Christopher Hoddesdon are 
defendants in a suit brought by Sir Henry Wallop 
and Dame Elizabeth his wife, daughter of Robert 
Corbett, Esq''^, deceased, to establish the claim by 
descent of the plaintiif Elizabeth to "two messuages 
and divers lands holden of the manor of Laighton 
Bussarde alias Bude serte (Beau desert) , Bedford 
county, late the estate of the said Robert Corbett, 
of which manor the dean and canons of St. George's 
Chapel, Windsor, are seized in fee, and the defend- 
ants Hoddesdon claim under a lease from them." 

I have doubtless prepared you against surprise, 
yet I must own that I was myself astonished to find 
Christopher Hudson, introduced as ' Christopher 
Hodderde, Defendant,' in a suit brought by Adulpli 
Carie Esq., " to compel admission to sundry mes- 
suages and lands in the town and fields of Leigh- 
ton Bussard, late the estate of Robert Corbett Esq., 
and which upon his death descended to Anne the 
wife of the Plaintiff, and Elizabeth the wife of 
Henry Wallop, Esq'"®, his daughters and coheirs ; 
the defendant being lord of the said Manor." ^ 
This however merely furnishes additional proof of 



1 Calendars of Proceedings in Cliancery, Reign of Elizabeth, 
vol. I, p. 161. 



68 

the infinite difficulty experienced in tracing individ- 
uals whose identity is so often hidden under the 
disguise of a misspelled name.^ 

From the manner in which they are associated 
in at least one suit, it would be natural to suppose 
that Sir Christopher Hudson, of Leighton Bus- 
sarde, and Christopher Hudson, Agent of the Mus- 
covy Companj^, were father and son. There are 
also grounds for believing that they both belonged 
to the family of Henry Hudson, the elder. For 
we are told by R. Sims, in his Index to Heraldic 
Visitations, that the Hudsons of Leighton Bussarde, 
Bedfordshire, were from Herts, and that the Hud- 



1 1 have preserved the extract which follows without any 
more definite thought than that, perhaps, the apparent relation- 
ship between the fact in the text and the statement given below, 
may contribute a ray of light on the subject, and enable some 
one to explore and explain satisfactorily the connection, if any 
there be, between the two : — 

" In the Deanery of Windsore succeeded Dr. Giles Tomson a 
little before Qu. Elizabeth's death, and in the mastership of 
the Hospital of St. Cross (which was designed by the Queen 
for George Brook, brother to Henry Lord Cobham), K. James 
at his first entry into England, gave it to 3fr. James Hudson, 
who had been his Agent there during part of the Reign of 
Queen Elizabeth. But Hudson being a Lay-man therefore not 
found capable of it. Sir Tho. Lake, for some reward given to 
him to quit his interest therein, prevailed with the King to 
give it to his brother Arthur Lake." Wood's Athense, Oxonienses^ 
I, 735, edition of 1691. 



69 

sons of London, and of Kent, were also from Herts. 
I am of the opinion that the spot where the seve- 
ral branches originated, and from whence they 
derived the family name, was Hoddesdon, a town 
in Hertfordshire, 41 miles south-east from Hertford, 
and 17 miles north by east from London, on the 
road to Ware. My theory is strengthened by the 
fact that the name of this place is supposed to 
have been derived from its having been the resi- 
dence of Hodo, or Oddo, a Danish chief, or from a 
tumulus or barrow, raised here to his memory.^ 
This view is also confirmed by Camden's derivation 
ef Hodson from Hod or Oddo, to which I have 
already called your attention.^ The Thatched 
House at Hoddesdon is immortalized by " honest 
Izaak" in the opening dialogue of his "Complete 
Angler."^ 



1 Lewis's Topog. Diet, of EnglanJ, II, London, 1831. 
~ Camden's JRemaines, ed. 1637, p. 133. 

3 Piscator. — " I have stretched my legs up Totnam-hill to 
overtake you, hoping your business may .occasion you towards 
Ware, whither I am going this fine fresh May morning." Ven- 
ator. — " Sir, I shall almost answer your hopes ; for my purpose 
is to drink my morning's draught at the Thatched-house in 
Hodsden." The town is supplied with water from a conduit in 
the market place, erected by Sir Marmaduke Rawdon, from 
whose life the following paragraph is taken : " From thence 
they went 3 miles farther to Hodsden, the place of Mr. Raw- 
10 



70 

The references of Mr. Sims to the Pedigrees and 
Arms of the several families of Hudson, to be 
found in the Harleian Collection in the British 
Museum^ are, in this connection, very valuable, 
and the manuscripts themselves would, I have no 
doubt, throw a flood of light upon the whole ques- 
tion under discussion. 

Additional proof of the family connection ex- 
isting between the Hudsons of Leighton Bussarde, 
Bedford county, and the family of Henry Hudson, 
founder of the Muscovy Company, is to be drawn 
from the fact that John Hudson, son of the latter 
person, whom we have already seen was settled 
in Kent county, was also the owner of leased 
lands in the manor of Melchborne, in the Parish 
of Ravensden, in the same county of Bedford.^ 

It is a remarkable fact that George Barne, al- 
derman of London, was also lord of the above 
manor of Leighton Bussarde, Bedfordshire, in 



don's aboode, a faire market towne which formerly did belong to 
Henry Bourchier, Earle of Essex, who had nere unto itt a faire 
howse." Jesse's Izaak Walton, Bohn, London, 1856, pp. 43, 
44. Life of Marmaduhe Rauulon, of York, with a valuable 
introduction and notes by Robert Davies Esq., F. S. A. Cam- 
den Soc. Pub., London, 1863. 

' Sims's Index to Heraldic Visitations, London, 1849. 

2 Cal. Proc. a. Chanc, Rg. of Eliz., vol. 11, p. 38. 



71 

1580.^ This is the more noticeable, as he was 
the son of the Sir George Barnes and the lady his 
wife, who were mentioned in the Muscovy Com- 
pany's Letter as having been the warm friends of 
Christopher Hudson, and it would seem to indi- 
cate a family relationship.'-^ 

This family of Barn, Barne, Barns or Barnes, 
for the name is spelled in each of these several 
ways, was as thoroughly identified with the Mus- 
covy Company as was the Hudson family. 

The Sir George Barnes mentioned by Hakluyt, 
was the son of George Barne or Barnes, citizen 
and haberdasher of London. He was sheriif of 
London in 1545-6, and lord mayor 1552-3.^ " He 
dwelled in Bartholomew Lane, where Sir William 
Capeil once dwelled, and now [1605] Mr. Derham. 



1 Col. Chanc. Proc, Rg. of Eliz., I, p. 5. The present town 
of Leighton Buzzard is 42 miles N. W. from London. 

-Ex. Hoddeson, Esq., is mentioned by Fuller as having 
been resident at Westning, county of Bedfordshire, and sheriff 
of that county in the 33d year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, 
A.D. 1591. 

Ex. is probably an abbreviation for Christopher. This would 
suggest the belief that it was the same Christopher Hudson 
who was so prominently connected with the Muscovy Com- 
pany. 

3 Stow's English Chron., Abridged ed., 1618, p. 255. 



72 

His Arms, Argent, on a chevron wavy azure, 
between three barnacles proper, three trefoils slipp- 
ed of the first, were taken downe after his death 
by his Sonne Sir George Barnes, and these sett 
upp in stede thereof; Azure, three leopards' heads 
argent."^ He was one of the four Consuls men- 
tioned in the charter given by Queen Mary to the 
Muscovy Company in 1555, and was one of the 
most influential and active members of that asso- 
ciation.^ Stow ^ relates this incident in his life : 
" King Edward kept his Christmas with open 
household at Greenewich, George Ferrers, Gentle- 
man being Lord of merry disports all the VH dales, 
who so pleasantly and wisely behaved himselfe, 
that the King had great delight in his pastimes. 

" On the fourth of January [1553] the saide 
Lord of merry disports came by water to the 
Tower, where hee entred, and after rode through 
Tower streets, where he was met and received by 
Sergeant Vans, Lord of misrule to master John 



1 Stow, Mr. Nichols's Notes to 3Iachi/n's Diary ^ Camden 
Soc. Pub., 1848, p. 363. 

2 Hakluyt, vol. I, p. 268. 

2 The Abridgment of the English Chronicle, First collected 
By Mr. John Stow. By Edmond Howes, London, 1618, p. 
257. 



73 

Mainard one of the shrives of London, and so con- 
ducted thorrow the Cittie with a great company 
of young Lords and Gentlemen, to the house of 
Sir George Barne Lord Maior, where hee with the 
chiefe of his company dined, and at his departure 
the Lord Maior gave him a standing cuppe with 
a cover, silver and gilt, of the value 5. pound ; 
the residue of his Gentlemen and servants dined 
at other Aldermens houses, and with the shrives." 

In this same year, 1553, Sir George Barnes dis- 
tinguished himself very prominently among 
those who succeeded in inducing Edward VI to 
donate the palace of Bridewell to the city of Lon- 
don for charitable purposes. The ceremonies 
attending this event were quaintly but faithfully 
commemorated by Hans Holbein, who was present 
and beheld the scene from a favorable position. 

The following account of the picture which he 
painted in honor of this particular occasion, is 
taken from the Reverend James Granger's Bio- 
graphical History of England,^ which was published 
in London in 1769, and dedicated to the Hon. 
Horace Walpole: "Edward VI, giving the charter 
of Bridew^ell to the Lord Mayor of London, Sir 



1 Vol. I, pp. 91, 92. 



74 

George Barnes, Knt., &c. On the right of the 
throne is the Lord Chancellor, Tho. Goodrick 
Bishop of Ely, standing ; on the left is Sir Robert 
Bowes, Master of the Rolls. The portrait with 
the collar of the Garter, is William Earl of Pem- 
broke ; ^ behind whom is Hans HoJhein the painter. 
— The two persons kneeling behind the lord mayor, 
are William Gerrard and John Maynard, Alder- 
men, and then Sheriffs of London : their names 
are omitted in the inscription of the print. Bride- 
well was formerly the palace of King John. It 
was rebuilt by Henry VIII in 1552. This historical 
piece which is in a large sheet, was engraved by 
Vertue, after the original by Holbein, in the Hall 
of Bridewell."' 



1 Named, in Muscovy Company's Charter. 

~ Bryan in his Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, speaks 
of a very fine engraving of Sir George Barnes, Lord Mayor of 
Loudon, by Charles Hall, an English artist, born about the 
year 1720, who also engraved a portrait of the Thomas Good- 
rick, Bishop of Ely, above referred to. Bryan says, Hall "was 
brought up a letter engraver, but he soon aspired to a more 
respectable branch of the art; and he was much employed in 
engraving portraits, coins, medals, and other antiquities. His 
portraits are his best works; and independent of the merit of 
their execution, they are faithful representations of the origin- 
als from which they are taken." Hall died in London, in 
1783. 



75 



A very fine copy, reduced in size, from Vertue's 
print, may be seen in Dr. Trollope's History of 
Chi'isfs Hospital. The same work contains " the 
noble eulogium bestowed by good Bishop Ridley 
* * * upon Sir George Barnes * * * 
extracted from the farewell letter, addressed by 
that pious prelate to his relations and friends, and 
all his faithful countrymen, shortly before his 
martyrdom."^ 

" And thou, Sir George Barnes, thou wast, in 
thy yeare, not only a furtherer and continuer of 
that which before thee by thy predecessor was 
well begun, but also thou didst labour so to have 
perfected the work, that it should have been an 
absolute thing, and a perfect spectacle of true 
charity and Godliness unto all Christendom. 
Thine endevour was to have set up a House of 
Occupations, both that all kind of poverty, being 
able to work, should not have lacked, whereupon 
profitably they might have been occupied to their 
own relief, and to the profit and commodity of the 
commonwealth of the City; and also to have re- 
tired thither the poor babes brought up in the 
Hospitals, when they had come to a certain Age 



1 Trollope's Hist, of Christ's Hospital. "Wm. Pickeriug, 
London, 1834, pp. 45, 46, 47. 



76 

and Strength; and, also, all those which, in the 
Hospitals aforesaid, haue been cured of their 
diseases. And to haue brought this to pass, thou 
obtainedst (not without great diligence and labour, 
both of thee and thy brethren) of that Godly 
King, Edward, that Christian and peerless Prince, 
the princely palace of Bridewel, and what other 
things to the performance of the same, and under 
what condition it is not unknown. That this 
thine endevour hath not had like success the fault 
is not in thee, but in the condition and state of 
the Time."i 

Sir George Barnes died on the 8th of February, 
1558,^ and was buried in the church of St. Bar- 
tholomew the Little.^ He " gave a Windmill in 
Finsbury iielde to the Haberdashers of London, 
the profits rising thereof to bee distributed to the 



^ Strype's Stow, p. 158. Quoted by Dr. Trollope. 

^Machyn's Diary, p. 166. 

'■^" S(. Bartholomew-Exchange ox Little) situate at the end 
of Bartholomew' s Lane. * * * Here is no Table 

of Benefactors, nor Monuments since the Fire, which consumed 
and destroyed all that were in it before ; yet because Mr. Stoio 
hath preserved the Memory of them, we shall recite them for 
others Example, viz. * * * Sir George Barne, 

Mayor in 1552. Mag. Brit., vol. Ill, p. 102. 



77 

pore almes people of the same company."^ Ma- 
chyn has preserved this account of his funeral: 

"The xxiiii day of Feybruary [1558] was 
[buried] Ser George Barnes knyght, late ma [yor] 
and haberdasser, and the cheyff marchand of Mus- 
kovea, and had the penon of Mu[scovy] amies borne 
at ys hereby ng ; and the [mayor] and the swerd 
bear had blake gownes and a .... in blake, and 
a iijxx pore men in blake [gowns] and had a stan- 
dard and V penons of armes, and cote and elmett, 
sword, targett, and a goodly hers of '■ wax ' and ij 
grett branchys of whytt wax, iiij dosen torchys, 
and viij dosen pensels, and ix dosen skochyons ; 
and doctur Chadsay mad the sermon on the morow, 
and after a grett dener. Master Clarenshus and 
Lanckostur the haroldes (conducted the cere- 
mony) ." ^ 

I have been unable to ascertain the maiden name 
of Sir George Barnes's widow. From the intimacy 
existing between the families, and the fact that 
her son was afterwards the possessor of the manor 
of Leighton Bussarde, Bedfordshire, of which Sir 
Christopher Hudson had previously been the lord, 



1 >SVoK-, Abrd. Ed., 1618, p. 255. 

~ Maclii/ii's Dlarij^ page 166. 
11 



78 

it is highly probable that she was a Hudson. 
Burke merely says that " by his wife Alice,'' Sir 
George Barne the elder, "had, with two daus. 
Anne,m. 1st to Alexander Carlyell Esq'"", and 2ndly 
to Sir Francis Walsingham; and Elizabeth, m. to 
Sir John Rivers Knt, two sons, George, his heir, 
and John, who left two daughters, his coheirs." ^ * * 
The letter of the Muscovy Company to Chris- 
topher Hudson which refers to lady Barnes, was 
written in May, 1560, and she had died in June of 
the previous year as will be seen below. 

" The ij day of Juin was bered at lytyll Sant 
Baythelmewes my lade Barnes, the wyff of Ser 
George Barnes, Knyght, and late mare of London ; 
and she gayff to pore men and powre women good 
rosett gownes a ihlanTc), and she gayffe to the powre 
men and women of Calles (hlanl-) a pesse, and she 
gayff a C. blake gownes and cottes; and then she 
had penon of armes, and master Clarenshux kyng 
of armes, and ther was a XX clarkes syngyng afor 
her to the chyrche with blake and armes ; and 
after master Home mad a sermon, and after the 
clarkes song Te Deum laudamus in Englys, and 
after bered with a songe, and a-for songe the Englys 



iBurke'a Diet. Landed Gentry, vol. I, p. 55, Loudon, 1848. 



79 

pressessyon, and after to the place to deuer ; Ser 
William Garrett^ clieylf morner, andmastei;Altliain 
and Master Chamburlayn,^ and her sunes and doy- 
thurs; ther was a noble dener."^ 

Sir George Barnes 2d was also free of the Haber- 
dashers Company, and was Lord Mayor in 1586-7. 
" He dwelled in Lombard Strete, over against the 
George, in the house which was Sir William Ches- 
ters, and is buried in St. Edmund's church hard by." ^ 
He bore the coat of leopard's heads quartered with 
Argent, a chevron azure between three blackbirds.^ 
Like his father he was an exceedingly active mem- 
ber of the Muscovy Company. We have seen in 
another place that he was one of the leaders of 



1 Sir William Grarrard, haberdasher, Lord Mayor, 1555. 
- Alderman Richard Chamberlain, chosen Sheriff in 1562. 

" Rychard Chamberlen, ironmonger, alderman and late shreve 
of London, dyed on Tuesday the xixth of November, 1566, in 
A° 9° Elizabeth Regine, at his howse in the Parish of St. 
Olyffe, in the Old Jewry, and was beryed on Monday, 25 No- 
vember, in the Parish church there :" for an act of his wife and 
children, vide note p. 391, Machyns Diary. 
■^Machyn's Diary, pp. 199, 200. 

' '' Church of St. Edmund the King'' was burned down in 
1666, and rebuilt in 1690. ''It formerly contained," says Mr. 
Stow, " a monument to Sir George Barne (2d), Lord Mayor of 
London in 1586." Mag. Brit., vol. Ill, p. 113. 

^ Vide Mr. Nichol's note Jfachyn's Diary, p. 363. 



80 

this corporation, who were mentioned by Doctor 
John Dee, as being present March 6th, 1583, at 
the important consultation about the North-west 
passage, which resulted in the remarkable voyages 
of John Davis, the forerunners of Henry Hudson's 
explorations. 

Sir Jerome Horsey in his Travels in Russia, fre- 
quently refers to Sir George Barnes 2d, and his 
brother-in-law Sir Francis Walsingham, as 'my 
good frends.'^ On his arrival in England in 1585, 
he writes : ^ "I was waell howsed in London, wael 
provided and atended one, much respected, feasted 
and enterteyned hy the Company of Muscovia, Sir 
Rowland Heyward, Sir George Barns, Mr. customer 
Smythe, and of many other aldermen and grave 
merchants." ^ 

Before his departure he says, "the company 
tradinge [to] Muscovia gave me good enterteynment 



1 Horsey' s Travels, p. 214. 

2 Bond's Introduction, Horsey' s Travels, p. cxxix. 

3 Horsey was of an ancient Dorsetshire family. He was a 
nephew of George Horsey, of Digswell, in Hertfordshire, and 
of Sir Edward Horsey, who AVas a man of influence and dis- 
tinction, and for some time held the ofl&ce of Governor of the 
Isle of Wight. Jerome Horsey went out to Russia in the year 
1573, as an apprentice or clerk, in the employ of the Russia 
Company. Q-. account of his talents and great familiarity with 



81 



and presents : provided by her Majestj/'s order ; 
* * * with which and her Majesty's dispatch 
commanded me to l3e sworen Esquire of her body, 
gave me her pictur, and her hand to kiss." ^ 

Sir George Barnes 2d married Anne, daughter 
of the Sir William Garrard, who figures in Hol- 
bein's picture, and who was made Lord Maj^or of 
London in 1555, and, in the same year one of the 
four Consuls of the Muscovy Company. Sir 
George died in 1592, and was succeeded by his 
eldest son. Sir William Barne, Brt., of Woolwich, 
Co. Kent, who was the cotemporary of Henry 
Hudson, the discoverer, and married Anne, daugh- 
ter of his grace Doctor Edward Sandys, Arch- 
bishop of York, and had six sons and a daughter. 

I have given a somewhat detailed account of 
this family, because it was apparently connected 
with the Hudsons, and like them from the very 



the Russian language, he was selected by the Czar as his mes- 
senger to Queen Elizabeth in 1580. " On arriving at the 
English court with the Czar's letters, he had the advantage of 
being introduced to the Queen by his kinsman, Sir Edward 
Horsey, and was countenanced by Lord Burghley and Sir Fran- 
cis Walsingham, through whose assistance he obtained access 
three or four several times to the Queen, and was intrusted with 
her letters to the Czar, on his return to Russia." 

1 Sir Jerome Horsey's Travels, Hak. Soc. Pub. 1856, p. 193. 



82 

commencement was largely interested in the Mus- 
covy Company. 

Several of its members were likewise concerned 
in the settlement of Virginia, and John Barnes 
accompanied our Henry Hudson, in his second 
voyage to the north, in the employ of the Mus- 
covy Company/ 

" The present representative of the family," says 
Burke, " is Frederick Barne, Esq., of Sotterly and 
Dunwich, County Sufiblk, late M. P. for Dunwich, 
and Captain in the 12th Lancers, married Feb., 
1834, Mary- Anne-Elizabeth, eldest daughter of the 
late Sir John Courtenay Honywood, Bart., and 
has issue, Frederick St. John Newdigate, and 
Alice Mary Honywood."^ 

It is possible, that there are papers or traditions 
in the Barne family, which would establish the 
relationship with the family of Hudson, and illus- 
trate their mutual connection with the Muscovy 
Compan^^ 



^ Furchas III, 574. London, 1625. 

- Arms- Quarterly : 1st and 4th, az., tJiree leopard's heads, 
arg. ; 2d and 3d, args., a chevron, az., between three Cornish 
choughs, sa. 

Crest, sa., an Eagle displayed, sa. Motto — Nee Timide, 
Nee Tcmere. Burke's l)ict. Landed Gentry, vol. I, pp. 55, 
56. London, 1848. 



Christopher Hudson, whom we know was ap- 
pointed in 1560, to the responsible ofhee of Agent 
of the Muscovy Company, seems to have dis- 
charged with singular fidelity and ability the 
arduous duties which devolved upon him. His 
advice was constantly asked, and he was appa- 
rently occasionally summoned to England on 
official business of importance. Having visited 
his native country in 1569, he was sent early in 
the winter of that year, with three ships laden 
with merchandize to the Narve, now Narva, a 
town situated eighty miles south-west from the 
present city of Saint Petersburgh, which was not 
then in existence, having been founded b}' Peter 
the Great, as late as the 20th Ma}^, 1703. 

Upon his arrival at the Narve, Christopher 
Hudson ascertained that the ships which he had 
brought with him would be not only insufficient 
to contain the goods that were soon expected from 
the interior of Russia, but would not accommodate 
even the wares that were already awaiting ship- 
ment. Having therefore landed their cargoes, he 
reloaded the ships and despatched them to Eng- 
land, with an earnest request to Sir William Gar- 
rard, Governor of the Muscovy Company, to for- 
ward immediately to the Narve, thirteen ships 



84 

suitably armed, to withstand the attacks of the 
Freebooters. 

Accordingly the company sent out in the 
Spring of 1570, a fleet of thirteen sail, under the 
command of William Burrough, who took and 
destroyed five piratical vessels, and forwarded 
their crews as prisoners to the Emperor of Russia. 
Hakluyt in his Preface to The Reader, in his first 
volume, calls particular attention to " the memo- 
rable voyage of M. Christopher Hoclson, and M. 
William Burrough, Anno 1570, to the Narue, 
wherein with merchants Ships onely, they tooke 
fine Strong and warrelike Ships of the Freebooters, 
which lay within the Sound of Denmark of pur- 
pose to intercept our English Fleete." 

To one unacquainted with Hakluyt's somewhat 
obscure style, it would appear from the foregoing 
that Christopher Hudson accompanied William 
Burrough on this occasion. That such was not 
the case may be readily seen by the following 
" Copy of a Letter sent to the Emperour of Mos- 
couie, by Christopher Hodsdon and William Bur- 
rough, Anno 1570." " 

" Most Mightie Emperour, &c.. Whereas Sir Wil- 
liam Garrard ' and his felowship the company of 
English merchants, this last winter sent hither to 



85 

the Name three ships laden with merchandise, 
which was left liere, and with it Christopher Hods- 
don, one of the said felowship, and their chiefe doer 
in this place, who when hee came first hither, and 
untill such time as hee had dispatched those ships 
from hence, was in hope of goods to lade twelve or 
thirteene sailes of good ships, against this shipping, 
wherefore he wrote unto the sayd Sir William 
Garrard and his companie to send hither this 
Spring the sayd number of thirteene ships. And 
because that in their coming hither wee found the 
freebooters on the sea, and supposing this yeere that 
they would be very strong, he therefore gave the 
said Sir William and his Companie advise to furnish 
the sayd number of ships so strongly, as they 
should bee able to withstand the force of the Free- 
booters : whereupon they have according to his 
advice .sent this yeere thirteene good ships together 
well furnished with men and munition, and all 
other necessaries for the warres, of which 13 ships 
William Burrough one of the said felowship is 
Captaine generall, unto whom there was given in 
charge, that if hee met with any the Danske 
Freebooters, or w^hatsoever robbers and theeves 
that are enemies to your highnesse, he should doe 

his best to apprehend and take them. It so 
12 



86 

hapned that the tenth clay ol this moneth the sayd 
William Avith his fleete, met with five ships of the 
Freehooters neere unto an Island called Tuttee, 
which is about 50. versts from Narve, unto which 
freebooters hee with his fleete gave chase, and tooke 
of them the Adniirall, wherein were left but three 
men, the rest were fled to shore in their boats 
amongst the woods upon Tuttee, on wdiich ship he 
set fire and burnt her. He also tooke foure more 
of those ships which are now here, and one ship 
escaped him : out of which foure ships some of 
the men fled in their boates, and so escaped, others 
were slain in fight, and some of them when they 
saw^ they could not escape, cast themselves willingly 
into the Sea and w^ere drowned. So that in these 
five ships were left but 83. men. 

The said Wil. Borough when he came hither to 
Narve, finding here Ohristoplier Hodsdon afore- 
named, both the said Christopher and William 
together, in the name of Sir William Garrard and 
the rest of their whole companie and felowship, 
did present unto your highnesse of those Freeboot- 
ers taken by our ships 82. men, which we delivered 
here unto Kne% Voivoda^ the 13. of this moneth. 
One man of those Freebooters we have kept by us, 
whose name is Haunce Snarhe, Captaine. And the 



87 

cause why we have done it is this : when w^ee 
should iiave delivered hitn with the reste of his 
felowes unto the Voivodaes officers, there were of 
our Englishmen more then 50. which fell on their 
knees unto us, requesting that he might be reserved 
in the ship, and caried back into England, and 
the cause why they so earnestly entreated for him, 
is, that some of those our Englishmen had bene 
taken with Freebooters, and by his meanes had 
their lives saved, with great favour besides, which 
they found at his hands. Wherefore if it please 
your highnesse to permit it, we will carry him home 
with us to England, wherein we request your 
majestie's favour : notwithstanding what you com- 
mand of him shal be observed. 

Wee have also sent our servant to your highnesse 
with such l:>estellings and writings as were found in 
those shippes : whereby your majestic may see by 
whom, and in what order they were set out, and 
what they pretended, which writings wee have com- 
mended unto Knez Yorive your Majestie's Voivoda 
at Plesco, by our servant. And have requested 
his furtherance for the safe deliverie of them to 
your Majestie's hands: which writings when you 
have perused, Avee desire that they may bee 
returned unto us by this our servant, as speedily 



88 

as may bee : for these ships which we now have 
here will be soon dispatched from hence, for that 
wee have not goods to lade above the half of them. 
And the cause is, we have this v/inter (by your 
Majestie's order) bene kept from traffiquing, to the 
Companies great loss. But hoping your majestie 
will hereafter have consideration thereof, and that 
we may have free libertie to trafique in all partes 
of your majestie's countries, according to the privi- 
lege given unto us, we pray for your majesties 
health, with prosperous successe to the pleasure 
of God. From Narve the 15. of July, Anno 1570. 
Your Majesties most humble 
and obedient 
Christopher Hodsdon, William Borough.^ 

William Burrough, wdio achieved such a signal 
victory over the freebooters, and joined his friend 
Christopher Hudson in the foregoing communica- 
tion addressed to the Emperor of Russia, was born 
about the year 1540, and became in several ways 
a distinguished man. When only thirteen,^ he 
accompanied his brother Stephen Burrough, who 
commanded the ship Edward Bonaventure, which 



1 Hakluyt, I, 401, 402. 

2 Hakluyt, I, 41T. 



89 

carried Kichard Chancellor, in his famous voyage 
to the Bay of St. Nicholas in 1553.^ " Also in the 
yeere 1556" he was, "in the voyage when the 
coastes of Samoed and Nona Zembla, w^ith the 
Straightes of Vaigatz were found out : and in the 
yeere 1557, when the coast of Lappia, and the bay 
of S. Nicholas were more perfectly discouered."^ 
In 1574, and 1575, he was one of the Muscovy 
Company's Russian Agents, and shortly afterwards 
Queen Elizabeth appointed him Comptroller of her 
Majesty's Navy. In 1580, we find him giving 
certain " Instructions and Notes," to Arthur Pet, 
who had been his messmate twenty-seven years 
before, and was now about setting forth upon his 
expedition with Charles Jackman. " A dedicatorie 
Epistle vnto the Queenes most excellent Maiestie, 
by Master William Burrough," is in the collections 
of Hakluyt, who says it was " annexed vnto his 
[W. Burrough's] exact and notable mappe of 
Russia" and contained ('' amongst other matters) 
his great trauailes, obseruations, and experiments 
both by sea and land, especially in those North- 



1 See 'List' found on board Sir Hugh "Willoughby's ship, 
the Sjiercmza, Hakluyt, I, 233. 

2 A dedicatorie Epistle vnto the Queenes most excellent 
Majestic. Hakluyt, I, 417. 



90 

eastern parts."^ William BuiTongli's nei3hew 
Christoplier Burrougli, who may have been thus 
named after Christopher Hudson, wrote ^sundrie 
letters' to his uncle, concerning the 6th "voyage 
made into the partes of Persia and Media," for the 
Muscovy Company, in the years 1579, 1580 and 
1581, in which Captain Thomas Hudson of Lime- 
house w^as repeatedly mentioned. 

I have not been able to ascertain with certainty, 
any thing whatever respecting Christopher Hudson 
during the period of ten years, subsequent to the 
date of his letter to the Emperor of Russia. In 
1580 however, he was once more living in Eng- 
land and was engaged with several other prominent 
men in a private adventure to Brazil. It ajopears 
that as early as the 26th June 1578, one John 
Whithall, an Englishman, who had married, and 
was then living at " Santos in Brazil," wrote to 
Master Richard Staper,^ urging him to send to that 
port, a fine bark of seventy or eighty tons, in 



1 Hakluyt, I, 417. 

2 St. Martin's Oteswizek Church. "Mr. Richard Staper^ 
an Alderman elect, who was the greatest Merchant of his 
Time, and the chiefest Actor in discovering the Turkey and 
East-India Trades, who died June 30, 1608," is buried in this 
church with the above inscription." Macj. Brit. Acct. of Lon- 
don, vol. Ill, p. 101, edition of 1738. 



91 

charge of a Portuguese pilot, and laden with a 
variety of articles, which w^ere enumerated in a 
list that accompanied the letter.-^ John Whithall 
also corresponded with Master John Bird, Master 
Robert Walkaden, and his brother James Whit- 
hall of London ; promising them at least two 
hundred per cent profit on the cargo sent out, and 
equal gains on the return voyage. Accordingly 
after some delay, "Christopher Hodsdon, Anthonie 
Garrard, Thomas Bramlie, John Bird, and William 
Elkin," formed an association to undertake the 
enterprise. Having procured the good ship the 
Minion of London, they loaded her with such 
goods as they were directed to procure, and 
despatched her to Brazil on the 3d of November, 
1580 ; sending in her a letter directed to John Whit- 
hall, written in London, October the 24 th, and 
signed by each of them. Although Hakluyt has 
preserved a copy of this letter, together wdth ' cer- 
taine notes ' of the voyage to Brazil, written by 
Thomas Grigs, purser of the ship, we have no' 
account of the result of the sjDeculation. 

We are now to learn the interesting fact that 
two or three years after his Brazilian venture, Chris- 
topher Hudson was prominently and zealously busy 



1 Hakluyt, III, 701, 702, 703, ed. 1600. 



92 

with other leading members of the Muscovy or 
Russia Company, in furthering an attempt to dis- 
cover and colonize the ' northern and western parts 
of America.' 

On the 22d March, 1574, a petition had been 
addressed to Queen Elizabeth by Sir Humphrey 
Gilbert, Sir George Peckham, Mr. Carlile, Sir 
Richard Grenville and others, to allow of an enter- 
prise for discovery of sundry rich and unknown 
lands, "fatally reserved for England and for the 
honor of your Maj'^."^ Four years later, viz: the 
11th June, 1578, the Queen granted letters patent 
to Sir Humphrey Gilbert to discover and take pos- 
session of all remote and barbarous lands unoccu- 
pied by any Christian prince or peojDle.^ Having 
made an unsuccessful expedition under this grant, 
Sir Humphrey was forced to return to England, with 
the loss of a fine ship, and the ^ valiant gentleman 
Miles Morgan.'^ Undismayed by misfortune, Gil- 
bert's gallant and energetic nature, always equal to 
an emergency, enabled him to commend the sub- 
ject of a second voyage for investigation and set- 



1 Domestic Coreqj. Ellz., vol. XCV, No. 63 Cal., p. 475, 
cited by Mr. Sainsbury. 

'^ Hakluyt, III, 135, ed. IGOO. 

3 M. Edward Haies in Hakluyt, III, 146. 



93 

tlement in America, to the most favorable notice of 
many influential men/ Accordingly on the 11th 
March, 1583,^ we find Sir Francis Walsingham 
writing to Master Thomas Aldworth, merchant, 
and at that time mayor of the city of Bristol, in 
the following terms : 

" I have for certaine causes deferred the answere 
of your letter of Nouember last till now, which I 
hope commeth all in good time. Your good incli- 
nation to the Westerne discouerie I cannot but 
much commend. And for that Sir Humfrey Gil- 
bert, as 3^ou haue heard long since, hath bene pre- 
paring into those parts being readie to imbarke 
within these 10. dayes, who needeth some further 
supply of shipping then yet he hath, I am of 
opinion that you shall do well if the ship or 2. 



1 The following affords a glimpse of Gilbert's dealings with 
Dr. Dee : 

" [1580] Sept. 10th, Sir Humfry Gilbert granted me my 
request to him, made by letter, for the royaltyes of discovery 
all to the North above the parallell of the 50 degree of 
latitude, in the presence of Stoner, Sir John Gilbert, his ser- 
vant or reteiner ; and thereupon toke me by the hand with faith- 
full promises in his lodging of John Cooke's howse in Wich- 
cross strete, where wee dyned onely us three together, being 
Satterday." Dr. Dee's Priv. Blarij, p. 8, Cam. See. Pub., 1842. 

•^ 1582, as printed in Hakluyt, III, 182, is clearly incorrect, 
as may be gathered from Aldworth's reply dated March 27, 1583. 
13 



94 

barkes you write of, be put in a readinesse to goe 
alongst with him, or so soone after as you may. 
I hope this trauell wil proue j^rofitable to the Ad- 
venturers and generally beneficiall to the whole 
realme : herein I pray you conferre with these 
bearers, M. Richard Hackluyt, and M. Thomas 
Steuenton, to whome I referre you : And so bid you 
heartily farewell." ^ 

Thomas Aid worth replied " to the right honour- 
able Sir Francis Walsingham, principall Secretary 
to her Maiestie, concerning a Westerne voya.ge 
intended for the discouery of the coast of America, 
lying to the South-west of Cape Briton," in a letter 
dated at Bristol on the 27th March, 1583. He 
said : " I presently conferred with my friends in 
private, whom I know most affectionate to this 
godly enterprise, especially with M. William Sal- 
terne deputie of our companie of merchants; 
whereupon my selfe being as then sicke, with as 
convenient speede as he could, hee caused an 
assembly of the merchants to be gathered : where 
after dutifuU mention of your honourable disposi- 
tion for the benefite of this citie, he by my appoint- 
ment caused your letters being directed unto me 



1 Hakluyt, III, 182, ed. IGOO. 



95 

priuatly. to be read in publike, and after some 
good light giuen by M. Hakluyt unto them that 
were ignorant of the Countrey and enterprise, and 
were desirous to be resolued, the motion grew gen- 
erally so well to be liked, that there was eftsoones 
set downe by mens owne hands then present, and 
apparently knowen by their own speach, and very 
willing offer, the summe of 1000. markes and 
upward : which summe if it should not suffice, we 
doubt not but otherwise to furnish out for this West- 
erne discouery, a ship of three score, and a barke 
of 40. tunne, to bee left in the countrey under the 
direction and gouernment of your Sonne in law 
M. Carlilt, of whom we haue heard much good, if it 
shall stand with your honors good liking and his 
acceptation. "V 

The ' M. Carlile ' incorrectly referred to in the 
above letter, as the son-in-law of Sir Francis Wal 
singham, was Christopher Carlile, who, together 
with Gilbert, Peckham and Grenville, had nine 
years before petitioned Queen Elizabeth." He was 
in reality the step-son of Sir Francis Walsingham. 
His mother was Anne Barnes, the daughter of Sir 



1 Hakluyt, III, 182, ed. 1600. 

2 Domes. Corrcsp. Eliz., vol. XCV. No. 63, Cal., p. 475. 



96 

George Barnes, the elder, Lord Mayor of London 
in 1552.^ His father, Alexander Carlile, 'master 
of the Vyntoners,' died in 1561, and an account 
of his funeral is given by Machyn.^ 

His mother^ married secondly Sir Francis "Wal- 



1 Burke's Hist, of the Commoners, I, 139. 

2 Machyn's Diary, 269. 

3 Burke's Hist, of the Commoners, I, 139. Anne Barnes, 
widow of Alexander Carlile, was the first wife of Sir Francis 
Walsingliam. She died leaving no children by Sir Francis, who 
married a second time, a widow, Ursula, relict of Richard 
Worsley, Governor of the Isle of Wight. By his second wife 
Sir Francis Walsingham left one daughter, that was married 
thrice ; first, to Sir Philip Sidney ; secondly, to Robert Dev- 
ereaux, Farl of Essex; and thirdly to Richard Bourk, Earl of 
Clanricarde, in Ireland. Burke's Hist, of Commoners, II, 448. 
Biog. Britannica, VII, 4142. Lodge, III. 

Sir Francis Walsyngham, of an ancient family in Norfolk, 
was the third and youngest son of William Walsynham, of 
Scadbury, in the parish of Chislehurst, in Kent, by Joyce, 
daughter of Edmund Denny, of Cheshunt in Hertfordshire. 
He was born at Chislehurst in 1536. He died April 6th, 1590, 
at his house in Seething-lane. Chalmers Biog. Diet., XXXI, 
69. It appears that in 1589 he entertained Queen Elizabeth 
at his house at Barn-Elms and, " as was usual in all her majesty's 
visits, her whole court. Previously to this visit the queen had 
taken a lease of the manor of Barn-Elms, which was to com- 
mence after the expiration of Sir Henry Wyatt's in 1600. Her 
interest in this lease she granted by letters patent, bearing date 
the twenty-first year of her reign, to Sir Francis Walsyngham 
and his heirs. He passed his latter days mostly in this retire- 
ment at Barnes." Chalraer's Biog. Diet., XXXI, 75. 



97 

singham. We specially noted^ the interest mani- 
fested towards Christopher Hudson by Sir George 
Barnes, and a little later we found further evidence 
indicating a relationship between the two families. 
We shall presently see Sir George Barnes's son-in- 
law, Sir Francis Walsingham, and his grandson^ 
Christopher Carlile, closely allied with Christopher 
Hudson, in a mutual effort to set on foot explora- 
tions in the New World. 

It appears that in April, 1583, immediately after 
the receipt of Aldworth's answer to Sir Francis 
Walsingham, Captain Carlile wrote " A briefe and 
summary discourse vpon the intended voyage to 
the hithermost parts of America : * * for the 
better inducement to satisfie such Merchants of the 
Moscouian companie and others, as in disbursing 
their money towards the furniture of the present 
charge, doe demand forthwith a present returne of 
gaine, albeit their said particular disbursements 
are required but in very slender summes, the 
highest being 25. li. the second at 12 li. 10 s. and 
the lowest at 6. pound five shillings." ^ 

In comparing the advantages to be derived from 



1 See ante, pages 64, 65, 70, 71. 

2 Hakluyt, III, 182. 



98 

the present enterprise, with the uncertainties 
attending the trade of the Muscovy Company to 
Russia, CarUle remarks: "It is well knowen, that 
what by the charges of the first discouery [by 
Richard Chancelor], and by the Great gifts bestowed 
on the Empereur [of Russia] and his nobilitie, 
togither with the lend dealing of some of their 
servants, who thought themselues safe enough from 
orderly punishment, it cost the [Muscovy or 
Russia] company aboue fourescore thousand pounds, 
before it coulde be brought to any profitable reck- 
oning. And now that after so long a patience and 
so great a burthen of expences, the same began to 
frame to some good course and commoditie : It 
falleth to very ticklish termes, and to as slender 
likelihood of any further goodnes, as any other 
trade that may be named. 

" For first the estate of those Countreys and 
the Emperours dealings, are things more fickle then 
are by euerybody understood. 

" Next, the Dutchmen are there so crept in as 
they daily augment their trade thither, which may 
well confirme that uncertainty of the Emperor's 
disposition to keepe promise with our nation. 

" Thirdly, the qualitie of the voyage, such as 
may not be performed but once the yeere. 



99 

" Fourthly, the charges of all Ambassadours be- 
tweene that Prince and her Maiesty, are alwayes 
borne by the merchants stocke. 

" And lastly, the danger of the King ^of Den- 
marke, who besides that presently he is like to 
enforce a tribute on us [the Muscovy Company], 
hath likewise an aduantage upon the ships in 
their voyage, either homewards or outwards when- 
soever he listeth to take the opportunitie." 

In strong contrast to these difficulties and dan- 
gers, Carlile brought forward the following argu- 
ments in favor of Sir Humphrey Gilbert's contem- 
plated voyage to New Foundland. 

"1. As first it is to be understood, that it is not 
any long course, for it may be perfourmed too and 
fro in foure moneths after the discouerie thereof. 

" 2. Secondly, that one wind sufficeth to make 
the passage, whereas most of your other voyages 
of like length, are subiect to 3. or 4. winds. 

" 3. Thirdly, that it is to be perfourmed at all 
times of the yeere. 

"4. Fourthly, that the passage is upon the high 
sea, wherby you are not bound to the knowledge 
of dangers, on any othSr coast, more then of that 
Countrey, and of ours here at home. 

"^'5. Fiftly, that those parts of England and 



100 

Ireland, which he aptest for the proceeding out- 
ward or homeward upon this voyage, are very well 
stored of goodly harbours. 

"6. Sixtly, that it is to bee accounted of no 
danger at all as touching the power of any forreine 
prince or state, when it is compared with any the 
best of all other voyages before recited. 

" 7. And to the godly minded, it hath this com- 
fortable commoditie, that in this trade their Fac- 
tours, hee Hiey tlieir seruants or child7'e7i shall 
haue no instruction or confessions of Idolatrous 
Religion enforced upon them, but contrarily shall 
be at their free libertie of conscience, and shall 
ifind the same Keligion exercised, which is most 
agreeable unto their Parents and Masters. 

" As for the merchandising, which is the matter 
especially looked for, albeit that for the present 
we are not certainely able to promise any such 
like quantitie, as is now at the best time of the 
JMoscouian trade brought from thence : So like- 
wise is there not demanded any such proportion 
of daily expences, as was at the first, and as yet is 
consumed in that of Moscouia and other. 

"But when this of Afnerica, shall have bene 
haunted and practised thirtie yeeres to an ende, 
as the other hath bene, 1 doubt not by God's 



101 

grace, that for the tenne Shippes that are now 
commonly employed once the yeereinto Moscouia, 
there shall in this voyage twise tenne be imployed 
well, twise the yeere at the least."^ 

Christopher Hudson, and his old friend and 
comrade William Biirrough, were active and promi- 
nent members of the Committee, appointed by the 
Muscovy or Russia Company, to take into consid- 
eration the arguments of Captain Christopher 
Carlile, and to confer with him " vpon his in- 
tended discouerie and attempt into the hithermost 
parts of America."^ The following abstract of the 
Report of the Committee is taken from the Cal- 
endar of State Papers, Colonial Series, edited by 
W. Noel Sainsbury Esq.^ 

"The Committies are well persuaded that the 
country is very fruitful ; inhabited with savage 
people of a mild and tractable disposition, and of 
all other unfrequented places ' the only most fit- 
test and most commodious for us to intermeddle 
withal.' They propose that one hundred men be 
conveyed thither, to remain one year, who with 



iHakluyt, III, 184. 

- Hakluyt, III, 188. C. Hudson's name, in the printed list, 
is spelled Hoddesden. 

3 Cal State Papers, Col. Series, I. London, 1860. 
14 



102 

friendly entreaty of the people, may enter into the 
better knowledge of the country, and gather what 
commodities may he hereafter expected from it. 
The charges will amount to 4,000?., the city of 
Bristol having very readily offered 1,000?., the 
residue remains to be furnished by the city of 
London. Privileges to be j^rocured by Mr. Carlile 
for the first adventurers ; also terms upon which 
future settlers will be allowed to plant. In the 
patent to be granted by the Queen, liberty will be 
given to transport all contented to go, who will be 
bound to stay there ten years at least. None to 
go over without license of the patentees, neither 
to inhabit nor traffic within 200 leagues of the 
place where, ' the General shall have first settled 
his being and residence.'" 

The above is given as the most important por- 
tion of the document in the English State Paper 
Office, entitled " Points set down by the Commit- 
tees appointed in the behalf of the Company to con- 
fer with Mr. Carleill upon his intended discovery and 
attempt in the northern parts of America."^ This 
is the earliest paper preserved and calendared by 
Mr. Sainsbury, who says in his preface, that it 



^ Cal. State Papers, Colonial Series, I. 



103 

belongs to the year 1574;^ lie accordingiy intro- 
duces that date into the title of his work. It is 
evident, however, from the mark of interrogation 
placed after 1574, on the first page of his Calendar, 
that he is not entirely certain as to the propriety of 
this chronological arrangement.^ 

This report is styled by Hakluy t '' Articles set 
downe by the Committies appointed in the behalfe 
of the Companie of Moscouian Marchants, to con- 
ferre with M. Carlile."^ It is placed immediately 
after Captain Carlile's " Briefe and summary dis- 
course vpon the intended voyage,"*" written in 
April, 1583, and must have been made a short 
time after Carlile's arguments were presented to 
the Committee for consideration. 

I am accordingly of the opinion that Mr. Sains- 
bury, whose general accuracy is proverbial, is incor- 
rect in assigning this document to the year 1574. 
He has in fact given it nine more years of age than 
it is entitled to receive; its real date being the 
spring of the year 1583. 



1 Cal. State Papers, Col. Series 1574-16G0, VII- 

2 Same, p. 1. 

sHakluyt, III, 188, 189. 
4 Hakluyt, III, 182-187. 



104 

Having perfected all his arrangements, and 
obtained his supplies, Sir Humphrey Gilbert 
departed from ' Caushen Bay neere Plimmouth ' ^ 
on Tuesday the eleventh of June, 1583, with a 
fleet of five ships. One of -the best of these, 
however, forsook his company, the thirteenth 
day of the same month and returned into Eng- 
land.^ This was the ominous commencement of a 
series of misfortunes which culminated on the 
night of the twelfth of September following, with 
the loss of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and the little 
frigate^ in which he was returning to England, 
after having taken possession of Newfoundland by 
virtue of his patent from Queen Elizabeth.^ 

Christopher Carlile's name does not appear in 
the list of officers, and it is not probable that he 
accompanied Gilbert's expedition, although inter- 
ested in its equipment and success.^ Two years 
later he was second in command under Sir Francis 
Drake ; and in Thomas Cotes's account of that 



1 Sir George Peckham, in Ilukluyt, III, 165. 

2 Master Edward Haies, in Hakluyt, III, 149. 

3 Edward Haies, in Hakluyt, III, 159. 

4 Sir Greorge Peckham, in Hakluyt, III, 1G5. Haies, in 
Hakluyt, III, 151. 

5 E. Haies, in Hakluyt, III, 148. 



105 

West Indian voyage^ he is described as ' Master 
Christopher Carleil, Lieutenant General, a man of 
long experience in the wan^es, as well by sea as 
land, who had formerly caried high offices in both 
kindes, in many fights, which he discharged alwaies^ 
very happilj^, and with great good reputation.' ^ 

Christopher Hudson had from the outset taken 
a deep interest in Sir Humphrey Gilbert's scheme. 
Entering into his views in many respects, he had 
recommended the Muscovy or Russia Company to 
assist in raising the funds requisite to dispatch 
Gilbert on his voyage of investigation and settle- 
ment. His own acute and sagacious intellect had 
been engaged for many years in planning the 
exploration of America, and he felt the importance 
of the undertaking. How sadly Christopher Hud- 
son must have listened to the news of the disas- 
trous termination of his hopes, and the tragic 
death of his friend. He was not the man, how- 
ever, to be daunted by adverse fortune, and he 
undoubtedly made other essays in a similar direc- 
tion. In the year 1601 we find him holding the 
office of governor of the Merchant Adventurers,, 
and writing to Lord Ellesmere in regard to the; 



1 Thomas Cotes, in Hakluyt, III, 534. 



106 

export of cloths. The manufacture of woolen 
cloth was introduced into England by Edward the 
Third, in the early part of the fourteenth century ; 
and under the title of Merchants of the Staple, 
the Mercers became extensive dealers in them. 
Having attained high distinction and eminence,, 
the fraternity of Mercers was incorporated in the 
year 1393.^ From the body known as Merchants 
of the Staple, another society arose in 1358, styled 
the Company of Merchant Adventurers. They 
did not, however, obtain this name until the reign 



1 The words Mercer and Merchant Adventurer are familiar to 
many persons, who perhaps do not attach a very definite idea tO' 
either term. By the former appeHation, in remote times, was 
meant any dealer in small wares; but as the commerce of this 
•country [England] became more extended, the operations of 
the mercers assumed a more important character, and the words- 
mercer and merchant became nearly synonymous. Their exist- 
-ence as a company may be traced as far back as the year 1172^ 
though they were not incorporated till 1393. They take pre- 
cedence of all the other city companies, and number among their 
members, says Hall, " several Kings, princes, nobility, and nine- 
ty-eight Lord mayors." Sir Richard Whittington, whose 
romaiatic tale is familiarly known to every one, was a member 
of this company; as was Sir Geoffrey Ballen, maternal grand- 
father to Queen Elizabeth ; and, what is a yet greater boast, 
Queen Elizabeth herself, who honored the mercers by becoming' 
a free sister of this company. It is a remarkable fact, that 
there is scarcely a simgle mercer in the Mercers' Company at 
the present day. Herbert'' s Hist., &c. and Stoio, by Strype, 
jpassim, Burgon's Garesham, Vol. I, pp. 185, 186. 



107 

of Henry the Seventh. They had in the first in- 
stance established a factory at Antwerp for^ the 
manufacture of woolen cloth. Their sovereign, 
seeing the flourishing condition of their trade, 
encouraged them to remove into England, which 
they accordingly did. The king was induced, by 
the success of his experiment, to prohibit the 
exportation of English wool, as well as to forbid 
the importation of all foreign cloth into the realm. 
Burgon says : " The prosperity of the Merchant 
Adventurers was permanent, and Sir Thomas 
Gresham, with many other mercers, was enrolled 
among them. Certain privileges and immunities, 
originally granted to this company by charter, had 
been confirmed to them by every successive mon- 
arch since their incorporation ; and few as they 
were in number, they virtually monopolized the 
commerce of the country. They constituted a 
fellowship which was under the control of a Gov- 
ernor elected out of their own body ; and they 
appointed deputy-governors for all their residences 
at home and abroad." ^ Such was the powerful cor- 
poration of which Christopher Hudson was now 
the chief governor. 



1 Burgoa's X-«ye of Sir Thomas Gresham, Vol. I, 188. 



108 

It appears that the Earl of Cumberland had 
obtained from Queen Elizabeth a patent for the 
■exportation of cloth, which involved him in a dis- 
pute with the company of Merchant Adventurers. 
Fearing lest his adversaries should succeed in 
setting aside the grant, or rendering it unprofita- 
ble, the Earl wrote the following letter to Lord 
Ellesmere, one of the Lords of the Council, praying 
him earnestly for assistance. From this epistle, 
which is endorsed by Ellesmere, " The E. of 
Cumberland, 5 Martj., 1601," we shall learn that 
Sir R. Cecill and Sir Edward Stafford had both 
previously enjoyed similar patents. 

■^^ To the Ryglit Honmable my very good Lo. Lo. Keper 
of the Great Seale of IngJande. 

My good Lo. I resolved to have attended your 
Lo. this daye at the Court, but one of the sicke 
fittis wh-erwith I am often troubled forceth my 
staye, and, doubtyng least hir Maj. should enter 
into speeche with your Lo. concernyng my cause, 
pardon me for rememberyng you howe it standeth. 
The only inconvenyence can cum by it to the 
Marchant Adventurerrs is my grauntyng leave to 
otherrs not free of ther cumpany, or to interloperrs 
though they be free, to sliippe clothes contrary to 



109 

the order of tlier courtes here. I have ever beene 
contented, and still am, that thoes persons which 
ar obedyent to the Government shall only have 
lycence from me, soe long as your Lo. of the Coun- 
cell dootlie not direct me contrary ; and for the 
pryce I will refer myselfe to any reasonable con- 
sitheration. For thoes clothes which have al- 
ready beene shipped by unfreemen in straungerrs 
bottoms, the faule of clothe by the marchants 
practis forced me to seeke out any which would 
bwy ; soe they broke the malytyus platt which 
was layde to macke the clothyer exclayme upon 
me, by which culler, provyng my patent hurtfull 
to the commonwelthe, it should have been re- 
voked. Alsoe I was extreamly urged by hir Maj. 
officerrs in the Custom House, and tould that if I 
should refuse to grant lycense to such as for dy- 
vers years past had used to shippe, it would soe 
much prejudice the Qu. in her custom as justly I 
should be founde fault with for it ; and to aprove 
that they myght passe in straungerrs bottoms 
showed me tooe letters to allowe it, writte to them 
by great counsellorrs, soe as I hoope I am not in 
the wysest censure to be condemned. 

Sense my grant I have shipped over some 1200 

clothes : there was nether Mr. Secretory nor Sir 
15 



110 

Ed. Stafford, but shipped 3000 at the least before 
the sould ther joatentes. My grant but for tenne 
years, the least of thers continued soe long : this 
last, if I had not louked into it, would have donne 
15 at the least, when I am tyed to lycence none 
but them (which I willyngly submit my selfe to as 
long as your Lo. shall see it good for the reame), 
ether can I not in tenne yeare passe above 
100,000 clouthes, or for so many as I dooe I gayne 
to hir Ma. the custom which heretofore she was 
deceved of, soe as by my grant hir Ma. shall not 
only receve 10,000Zi, but be truly payed hir cus- 
tome, which I doubt not shal be twyse as muche 
more, for that which here tofore she never receved 
any thyng ; for all the former grantes, which thus 
long contynued, were certayne, myne (if upon 
experience hurtfull) to be revoked, and I protest 
to your Lo. upon my soule, I will as willyngly, 
whensoe it is found, laye it at hir Maj. feete as I 
dutyfull receved it. All this consitheryd I hoope 
your Lo. will favor me. Her Maj. hath allwayes 
beene gratius, and I dout not will, out of hir owne 
disposition, be redy to favor ; but fearyng howe 
she maye be enformed, I macke bould to laye be- 
fore your Lo. the truth of my cause, not soe much 
carying for the profitt, howe much soever I need, 



Ill 



as for the disgrace which it would be to ine, if 
thes men, that yett never prevaled agaynst any 
former patenty, should nowe tryumphe over me, 
whoe only they mislyke, for that I will not see 
hir Maj. deceved as in former tymes she hathe 
beene. I protest to your Lo. the losse of my hoole 
estate should not cum soe neare my haste as this 
disgrace, which though, the justnes of my cause 
consithered, I feare not, yett the unsupportable 
burthen that it would be, if it should happen, 
trobleth me, and causeth me thus to troble your 
Lo., to whoes wyse consitheration I present thes, 
only assuryng your Lo. that if I contynue in this 
I will dooe honest and good servis. 

Your Lo. to command, 

GEORGE CUMBERLAND."^ 

On the 6 th of March, 1601, the day after the 
above communication was received, Christopher 
Hudson, in his official capacity as governor of the 
Merchant Adventurers, dispatched the ensuing 
letter to Lord Ellesmere. I have already briefly 
referred to one of its paragraphs as containing the 
earliest information which I have yet discovered 
concerning the writer, Christopher Hudson. 



^ Egerton Papers^ Cam. Soc. Pub., 1840. 



112 

" To the Right HoiwroMe and my verie good Lord, 
the Lord Keeper, one of lier Majesties most honora- 
hle Privie Gouncell, at the Court, d. d. 
Right Honorable and my verie good Lord. 
Forasmuche as dyvers matters weare not on Wed- 
sondaie last throughlie aunswered so large as they 
might have binne in the behalf of the Marchauntes 
Adventurers, and knowing as I do the good af- 
fection which your Lop. not onely carryeth to the 
honnour of our most gracious and excelent good 
Prince, our Saveraigne good Lady Queene and 
Empresse, but also the good of the common 
wealth, have thought good for the discharge of my 
dewtie to make knowne unto your Honnour so 
much as my proper experience yeldeth unto me, 
as by these artikles following unto your good 
Lordshipp male apppeare. And now to the fyrst 
allegation. Wheras it was said that before her- 
Ma*^® graunted privileges to the Merchantes Ad- 
venturers in Germanic, all other Englishmen 
might freely passe thither with their wares and 
commodyties, the which I graunt to be true ; but I 
denye that there was any traffique in Germanye by 
Englishmen before the begyning of her Ma*"'* 
raigne. For in the yeare 1554 I came from Dan- 
syck by land, through all the maryne townes nere 



113 

the sea, except Stoad and Embden, and found no 
Englishmen using any trade in them, nor any 
cloth to be solde, but onely by the Stylyard men. 
As for the upland townes in Germanye, it is well 
knowne they had their factors and servants at 
Auwerp, not onely to buy their cloth of the Com- 
pany aforesaid, but also to vent suche comodyties 
as their countrie yelded ; and it is verie manyfest 
that before the said Company settled their trader 
at Embden and Stoade there was no cloth by En- 
glishmen shipped thither, which trade the Compa- 
ny fownd out when they were in daunger in the 
Loo Countries to their great costes and charges,, 
and therefore no reason why others should have 
the trade from them. And before the said Com- 
pany w^eare priviledged in Germanic, the said 
Marchantes Adventurers weare at libertie to ad- 
venture into all partes within the Stray tes and 
Mediteranium Sea, and also into all partes within 
the East Seas, and to all partes of the Ocian Seas, 
which they male not do now by meanes of new 
corporations to the Company of New trades, the 
Company of Eastland Marchantes, and to the 
Company of Trypolie, &c., and therefore no reason 
why they should be cutt of from the trade of 
Germanye, which countrie was alwaies not onely 



114 

clieeflye fedd with comodyties from them, but also 
with vent of the comodyties of the said countrie 
unto them as aforesaid. And whereas it was said 
that the Navye whould be better maynteyned by 
trade further of then Midlebroughe, that is in 
lyke case trew, yf the said trade be not man- 
naged in good order ; but the Marchauntes Ad- 
venturers, even to and for Midlebroughe mayn- 
teyneth as good shipps as the trade at Stoade, 
for they sett no shipps on worck for that place but 
of 1500 toon at the least, and well appoynted. 
And whereas it was said that the clothes did beare 
a better price at Stoade then at Midlebroughe, it 
maie be well proved that by the experience of this 
yeare passed clothes hath been as well sold at 
Midlebroughe as at Stoade ; but it is not the great • 
pryce of cloth that is either good for her Ma*'® in 
the customes, or for the Common Wealth to sett 
people on worck, for the higher the price of cloth 
the fewer is sold, as by experience appeareth ; for 
synce our clothes hath borne these great prices 
there is much more cloth made in Germanic then 
there was before. And whereas the Marchaunts 
Adventurers hath given thoir generall opinion, that 
so farr fourth as her Ma"®^ Councell shall back 
them, that no trade where they be priviledged be 



115 

used but to the mart towne where theje sell them- 
selv(3S, yet it male be doubted, yf Thearle of Cum- 
berland's lycense do contynew, that it male fall out 
otherwyse, whereof a reason or two I have thought 
good to sett downe, althoughe there maie be 
objected many others. For yf the Merchaunt be 
discouraged, as needs he must yf when he have 
bought his clothe he knoweth not at what rate he 
shall passe it in the Custom House, but shall stand 
for the same at another man's devotion, and so to 
be driven to paie more then he shall well knowe to 
gayne by the sayle thereof, will make men to 
pause and not to be hastie to buy anie cloth at all. 
In lyke cases the prices of course clothes being by 
this meanes advaunced, and thereby the great 
quantitie of the same sort of cloth be made in Ger- 
manye, then the lesse must needs be shipped out 
of England. Even so in lyke case maie be 
imagined when marchaunts shall without cause 
stand at the devotion of their enymie, whether 
their goods shall be turmoyled by opening of their 
packs, themselves wrongfullie put into the Ex- 
chequer, as late hath been experymented, which is 
imagined not to [be] don without the practise of 
the deputie of the said Earle in the Custom-howse, 
who is knowne to be a verie enymie to honest men 



116 

and those which dealeth uprightlie; and a great 
freind to those which by all meanes practiseth to 
deceave the Company of their imposytions. And 
forasmuch as the said deputie, and others his com- 
panyons, would willinglie even now shipp their 
goods to Stoade, notwithstanding the great daunger 
there, it male be imagined that they have some 
secreete doinges with some of the Haunse Townes, 
and the rather for that ever synce the Styllyard 
was put downe they have used dyvers greate prac- 
tises to hinder the quiet and settled trade of the 
Marchaunts Adventurers, wherby the said Haun- 
ses have so obstynately contended : whereas other- 
wyse, before this theye would have sought to her 
Ma*^'' for an ende of these trobles, wrongfullie sur- 
mised by the said Haunses, practysers to the greate 
hurt of the Marchaunt Adventurer. And thus, 
with prayer for the long contynewance of your 
Honnour amongest us, in most humble sorte, I take 
my leave. London, this 6th of March, 1601. 
Your Lp's. most humble at commaunde, 
CHRISTOPHER- HODDESDONN.^ 



Egerton P<3pers, Camden Soc. Fuh., London, 1840, pages 
55, 330, 387, 338, 839, 340. 



1 

i5i 



117 

At this period of his life it would seem that 
Christopher Hudson signed his name as al)ove, 
Hoddesdonn. Lord EUesmere, in the endorsement 
on the back of the letter, drops the final n, and 
designates him as " Mr. Hoddesdon, Governor of 
the Merchant Venturers." 

We have seen that aside from his original powers 
of mind, Christopher Hudson undoubtedly owed 
his success in life to the knowledge and experience 
which he had gained in the service of the Muscovy 
or Russia Company ; with which corporation, more- 
over, he continued to identify himself, by taking an 
active part in its consultations, up to the time when 
our information concerning him ceases. 

I am not aware of the date of Christopher Hud- 
son's death. In fact, for want of further knowledge 
I am compelled to take leave of him at a most 
interesting period, viz: in 1601, while he is holding 
an office which confers upon him great power and 
extensive influence. It is the more to be regretted, 
as this was only six years before Henry Hudson, the 
discoverer of Delaware and Neio York, made his first 
recorded voyage to the North in the employ of the Mus- 
covy Company. 

Having communicated the principal portion of 

the information which I have obtained respecting 
16 



118 

the Hudson family and the Muscovy Company, it 
now becomes desirable to consider the bearing of 
the same upon the life and character of Henry 
Hudson, the navigator. 

Many of the observations and facts contained 
in the preceding pages may have appeared to you 
to be wanting in importance, or in immediate con- 
nection with our subject. I should share the same 
conviction perhaps, were it not that in attempting 
to present an account of my investigations and dis- 
coveries concerning the several members of the 
Hudson family, and of their intimate relations with 
the Muscovy Company, I felt the importance of 
retaining every item which might shed a ray of 
light, even in the most indirect way, upon the 
exceedingly obscure matter under discussion. As 
it is, I hope that I have enabled you to reach the 
two following conclusions : 

1st. That Henry Hudson, who discovered Dela- 
ware Bay and the Hudson River in 1609, was the 
descendant, probably the grandson, of Henry Hud- 
son, the elder, who died while holding the ofhce of 
Alderman, in the city of London, in the year 1555. 

2d. That Henry Hudson, the aforesaid dis- 
coverer, received his early training, and imbibed 
the ideas which controlled the purposes of his after 



119 

life, under the fostering care of the great corpora- 
tion which his relatives had helped to found and 
afterwards to maintain. 

What follows will serve, I trust, to strengthen 
these convictions in the minds of all. 

We have learned that London was the residence 
of Henry Hudson the elder, of Henry Hudson his 
son, and of Christopher Hudson, and that Captain 
Thomas Hudson lived at Limehouse, now a part of 
the metropolis ; while Thomas Hudson, the friend 
of Doctor John Dee, resided at Mortlake,^ then only 
six or seven miles from the great city, where he 
likewise spent much time. By reference to a state- 
ment made by Abacuk Prickett, in his ^^ Larger 
Discourse" ^ it will be found that Henry Hudson 
the discoverer was also a citizen of London, and 
had a house there. It is, moreover, safe to assume 



1 An examination of the records of Mortlake and the monu- 
ments in the ancient church there, taken in connection with 
similar researches at Limehouse, eight or nine miles .distant pnly 
in those days, or perhaps in the old church at Stepney (as Lime- 
house was formerly a hamlet belonging to Stepney, from which 
parish it was separated in 1730), with the aid of the manuscript 
records of the Muscovy Company, will perhaps satisfactorily 
determine the exact degrees of relationship existing between 
Thomas Hudson of Mortlake, Captain Thomas Hudson of 
Limehouse, and Henry Hudson the discoverer. 

^Furchas, III, 601, London, 1025. 



120 

that the great navigator was "born within the 
sound of Bow bells." ^ 

There is little room for doubting that Henry 
Hudson was trained up in the Muscovy Company's 
employ. From the 7tli section of Captain Carlile's 
argument, to be found at page 100 of this address, 
it is evident that the children and relatives of the 
influential members of that company were fre- 
quently in its employ. It is also apparent from 
various documents preserved in Hakluyt's first 
volume, that after the firm establishment of its 
trade with Russia, the Muscovy Company employed 
two classes of boys, who were bound, in accordance 
with the custom of that period, apprentices for a 
term of years. 

One class was composed of lads," who, having 



^ This fact, together with the exact year of his birth, and the 
precise degrees of relationship which existed between Henry 
Hudson and the various members of his family mentioned in 
this address, will doubtless be accurately ascertained in the 
course of the examinations now being made in England under 
my directions. The results of these researches I hope to be 
able to present to the public at no distant day. 

2 See Hakluyt, I, 308. [May 5th, 1560.] " We send you 
Nicholas Chancelour to rcmaine there, who is our apprentice for 
yeeres ; our minde is hee should be set about such businesse as 
he is most fit for ; he hath been kept at writing schoole long ; 
he hath his Algorisme, and hath understanding of keeping of 
bookes of reckoninge." 



121 

received at the company's expense a good element- 
ary education, were afterwards sent out to Russia 
to keep accounts, and to buy and sell goods, under 
the direction of the chief agents. Some of the 
most intelligent were sent " abroad into the notable 
cities of the countrey for understanding and know- 
ledge," ^ and profiting by their opportunities, became 
valuable assistants in extending the trade, event- 
ually attaining important positions " in this, or in 
kindred companies ; a few even reaching high 
official stations as ambassadors and statesmen. 

Of this class Sir Jerome Horsey and Christopher 
Hudson were conspicuous examples. 

The other class comprised young men, also of 
influential connections, whose spirit of adventure 

1 The following occurs in the Company's letter to the agents 
in Russia, written in the spring of 1560, and preserved in 
Hakluyt, I, p. 299 : '' We doe send you in these ships ten yong 
men that be bound Prentises to the Companie, whom we will 
you to appoynt euery of them as you shall there finde most apt 
and meete, some to keepe accompts, some to buy and sell by 
your order and Commission, and some to send abroad into the 
notable Cities of the Countrey for understanding and knowledge. 
And we will you send us aduertisement from time to time as 
well of the demeanours of our Prentises which we doe send now, 
as also of such other as bee already there with you. And if 
you finde any of them remiss, negligent, or otherwise misuse 
themselues and will not be ruled, that then you doe send him 
home, and the cause why." 

•^ See Hakluyt, I, 307. 



122 

and love for the sea induced their friends to place 
them as apprentices on board the Company's ves- 
sels to learn the art of navigation. This fact is 
thus referred to in the rare tract entitled The 
Trades Increase, printed at London in the year 
1615 : " the fleet that went ordinarily thitherward 
[to Russia] entertained three or four novices in a 
ship, and so bred them up seamen, which might 
make up the whole happily some foure-score men 
yearly, * * then there were some five hundred 
mariners and sailors employed withal." ^ The same 
authority informs us that originally seventeen ships 
of great burthen were yearly sent to Muscovy, and 
we know from Christopher Hudson's letter to the 
Emperor of Russia, ^ that a fleet of thirteen armed 
ships belonging to the Company were sent to the 
Narve in 1570. The following directions occur in 
the " Instructions given to the Masters and Mari- 
ners" of the fleet in the year 1577 : 

" Item, that notes and entries be daily made of 



1 " The Trades Increase, London, printed by Nicholas Okes, 
and are to be sold by Walter Burre, 1615, 4°, containing 62 
pages." Harleian Miscellany , vol. Ill, p. 300. 

The title of this tract was probably taken from the name of 
the great ship built by the East India Company, and christened 
by King James I, on the 30th Dec, 1609. 

2 See ante, page 84. 



123 

their Nauigations put in writing and memory, 
and that the yong Mariners and apprentices may 
be taught and caused to learne and obserue the 
same. 

" It is accorded that the said Captaine shall haue 
the principall rule and gouernement of the appren- 
tices ; And that not onely they, but also all other 
the sailers, shal be attendant and obedient to him, 
as of dutie and reason appertaineth. 

a * * * Item, that the Captaine by discretion 
shall from time to time disship any artificer or 
English seruingman or apprentice out of the Prim- 
rose into any of the other three ships, and in lieu 
of him or them, take any such apprentice as he 
shall thinke conuenient and most meete to serue 
the benefite of the companie."^ 

Under this discipline Captain Thomas Hudson, 
William Burrough, Arthur Pet and Charles Jack- 
man acquired experience and laid the foundations 
of their future success. What more natural than 
that Henry Hudson, whose family connections were 
foremost in the management of the Muscovy Com- 
pany's affairs, should be permitted in like manner 



1 Hakluyt, I, 295, 296. 

The names of the vessels of this fleet, with their tunnage 
and the commander of each, will be found at page 297. 



124 

to derive every advantage which such a school 
could afford to one emulous of success as a navi- 
gator ? This theory affords a clue to the origin 
of the great motives which controlled Hudson 
throughout his later career. We are substantially 
told by a " cloud of witnesses " that the discovery of 
a north-eastern or north-western passage to China 
and the East Indies was the darling object of Hud- 
son's ambition : that in this all-absorbing thought 
lay the secret of his remarkable voyages and val- 
uable discoveries. Was it not for the attainment 
of this very end that the Muscovy or Russia Com- 
pany was organized ? 

Educated with a view to his future life, and bred 
in the Company's service, cruising in its ships, 
and gaining knowledge from the most skilful Cap- 
tains, his mind was from earliest youth familiar 
with the aims and objects of this powerful com- 
mercial body. What wonder that the lessons of 
early boyhood sunk deep into Hudson's mind ; or 
that the desire to solve what he had been taught 
to consider the great problem of his age, should 
afterwards become the master-passion of his ma- 
turer years ? 

It would appear from " Certain Instructions 
delivered in the third voyage Anno 1556, for 



125 

Russia," ^ that the Pursers on board the Muscovy 
Company's ships were obliged to keep books in 
which were registered the names of every man and 
boy, officers as well as common sailors, in each 
particular vessel. If these books are still in exist- 
ence they would prove valuable assistants in verify- 
ing much that I have stated. The fact that we first 
meet with Henry Hudson in the employ of the 
Muscovy Company also confirms my views as to 
his early training. It is likewise especially to be 
noted, that of the four voyages of Henry Hudson, 
of which we know any thing, the first two were 
made for the Muscovy Company, while the fourth 
and last was set on foot by Sir Thomas Smith, at 
that time Chief Governor of the Muscovy Company. ^ 
That Henry Hudson belonged to a prominent 
family, was peculiarly esteemed by the Muscovy 
Company, and had interest at court, is evident 
from the fact that vessels were sent out to search 



1 Hakluyt, I, 272, 273. 

2 See Purchas His Pilgrimage, p. 817. This is the first 
time that this fact has been noticed by investigators of the 
life of Hudson. Sir Thomas Smith, Sir Dudley Digges, and 
Master John Wostenholme, are specially mentioned by Purchas 
as furtherers of this voyage. That Smith was then governor 
of the Muscovy Company may be seen from Purchas III, 699, 
711, 713, 716, 728, 731. For names of his other employers, 
see Bahhnjt Soc. Pnb., 1860, p. 255. 

17 



126 

for him in 1612 b}^ order of Henry, Prince of 
Wales, and the Russia Company.^ His personal 
influence is further illustrated by the remark of 
Prickett/ who says, that in his last voyage, Hud- 
son promised on his return home to have Henrie 
Green made one of the Prince's Guard. 

It is quite evident that Captain John Smith's 
acquaintance with Henry Hudson commenced 
before the year 1607, Avhich as we have seen, is 
the earliest period in which mention is made of 
Hudson by Purchas. Van Meteren, the Dutch 
Consul resident in London, who knew Hudson well, 
speaks of the friendship existing between Hudson 
and Captain John Smith prior to the former's voyage 
in 1609."' Now Smith was in London in 1604, link- 
ing his fortunes with those of Bartholomew Gosnold, 
Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Richard Hak- 
luyt, Ralegh Gilbert, Edward Maria Wingfield and 
others. Dec. 19th, 1606,^ he set sail from Blackwall, 
and did not return to England until three years later. 
It is probable that Hudson and Smith were thrown 



^ See 2d Latin edition of The Hudson Tract, published at 
Amsterdam, by Hessel Gerritsz. For translation see Halduyt 
Soc. Ful., 18G0. 

'^Larger Discourse, Purchas, III, 601. 

3 Van Meteren's Historie tier Nederlanderen, Hague, 1614. 
For translation see Halduyt Soc. Fuh., 1860, p. 148. 

4 Stith's Hist. Virginia, Book II, p. 44. 



127 

together in London during the first interval referred 
to, on account of their similar tastes and mutual 
acquaintances. For it is a remarkable fact that 
many of the prominent members and captains of the 
Muscovy Company were also interested in the set- 
tlement of Virginia. Among these were Sir Thomas 
Smith, Sir Dudley Digges, Captain Thomas Button, 
John Merrick, Richard Chamberlayne, Richard 
Staper, Arthur Pet, Thomas Gerrard, William 
Barnes, and John Hudson.^ The two latter were 
undoubtedly connections of Henry Hudson. Wil- 
liam Barnes, (afterwards a Baronet), son of Sir 
George Barnes 2d, has already been noticed at 
page 81; and I believe this John Hudson to be 
th^ identical John Hudson mentioned at page 45, 
as the unmarried son of Henry Hudson the elder. 
For we learn from several letters^ that John Hud- 
son (the son of Henry Hudson, the elder, founder 
and first assistant of the Muscovy Company) was 
alive as late as 1618. Admiral Sir William Mon- 



1 Stith's Hist. Virginia, App., pp. 9-14. J. Hudson's name 
is here spelled Hodgson. 

'^ Calendars of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reign of 
James I. I regret extremely that I have only had access to an 
odd volume of this scries ; and that I have not been able to find 
in any Library the Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of 
the reigns of Edward VI, Mary and Elizabeth. 



128 

son/ who speaks in his Naval Ti-acts in high terms 
of Hudson, was also one of the Adventurers to 
Virginia. Another of Henry Hudson's friends, 
Richard Hakluyt, prebendary of Westminster, 
was the chief promoter of the petition addressed 
to King James in the year 1606, praying that he 
would grant ])atents for the colonization of Vir- 
ginia. It is from Hakluyt's famous Voyages that 
we have learned so much respecting the earlier 
members of the Hudson family, and it was to 
Hakluyt that Purchas was indebted for much 
information concerning Henry Hudson himself. 
Hudson evinced his esteem for Hakluyt as early as 
1607, when he named a promontory, which he had 
discovered, after him. Hakluyt^ was also the inti- 
mate of Sir Francis Walsingham, Sir Robert Cecil, 
the Lord High Admiral Howard, Sir Philip Sidney, 
Sir Francis Drake, and many other distinguished 
men. 

We know that in 1601, Christopher Hudson 
was governor of the Merchant Adventurers, 
which at that time, according to contemporary 
testimony, included more than half of all the 



1 Sir William Monson's Naval Tracts, Book IV. Churchill's 
Voyages, Vol. 3d, pp. 386, 387. 

2 For sketch of Hakluyt see appendix. 



129 

wealthy traders of London, York^ Norwich, Exe- 
ter, Ipswich, Newcastle, Hull, and the other chief 
commercial towns. It is possible that about tiiis 
period, for a short interval, Henry Hudson may 
have been a captain in this corporation's employ. 
I have examined all the authorities to which I 
have had access, to ascertain whether he was en- 
gaged in the Turkey Company, which began in 
1581; the Morocco Company, which originated in 
1585; the Guinea Company, which arose in 1588; 
or whether he sailed in the employ of the '' Gao- 
ernor and company of Merchants of London trading 
into the East Indies" who were incorporated by 
royal charter on the last day of the year 1600.-'- 
I have found nothing to indicate his connection 
with either of the first three of these comjDanies. 

The English East India Company, however, 
engaged with the Muscovy Company in dispatch- 
ing Henry Hudson on his last voyage to the North 
in 1610.^ Sir Thomas Smith, already referred to 
as being the governor of the Muscovy Company, 
was at the same time governor of the East India 



1 HaMuyt Soc. Puh., London, 1855, p. i. 

- See Charter granted to the Merchants Discoverers of the- 
North West Passage, July 26th, 1612. Hakluyt Soc. Fub.^ 
London, 1860, p. 255. 



130 

Company, and this was only one of a number of 
instances in which the two companies, while under 
his guidance, united in a common enterprise. The 
Trades Increase alludes to the close connection 
existing between the two associations,^ and Pur- 
chas confirms this view. At the close of the 
sixteenth century, owing to the rival enterprise of 
the Dutch, the trade with Russia^ had greatly 
diminished, and the Muscovy Company again 
turned its attention more especially to the accom- 
plishment of the object (the discovery of a north- 
ern passage to India) which it was originally or- 
ganized to promote. Many of its most influential 
members were the originators of the East India 
Company (in 1600),^ and it was most natural that 
the two bodies should frequently unite in sending 



1 The Trades Increase, London, 1615. Harl. Misc., vol. Ill, 
pp. 291, 292. 

2 I regret that I have been unable to con&vXi England and 
Russia, by Dr. J. Haniel, referred to by Mr. Bond as " trans- 
lated by J. S. Leigh, London, 1854;" although " this valuable 
treatise only extends to the year 1576." 

3 A comparison of the lists of the prominent members of the 
Muscovy Company preserved in Purchas, with the numes of 
the principal originators of the East India Company, led me to 
think that the latter company was an oflfshoot of the former. 
An examination of The Trades Increase, printed in 1615, and 
other contemporary authorities had convinced me as to the cor- 



131 

out expeditions to make discoveries mutually 
beneficial. It is probable, therefore, that the re- 
cords of the East India Company might furnish 
some additional facts in the life of Henry Hudson. 
Stow illustrates the intimate relations existing 
between several of the most powerful trading 
companies of that period when he says : The 
first Governour of this [East India] Company 
named and ordained both in the first and last 
pattent was Sir Thomas Smith, knight, who is 
also Governor of the Muscovy Company, and 
President and Treasurer of the Company and 
Counsell for Virginia."^ 

Thus we see that many of the foremost men of 



rectness of this belief. In December 1614, Sir Thomas Smith, 
governor of the East India Company, reminded the Court of 
Committees of that corporation, " that three yeares since this 
Coumpanie did aduenture £300, p. annum for three yeares 
towardes the discou''y of the Northwest passage." See Eun- 
dall's Voyages to the North- West, Haldvyt Soc. Fab., London, 
1849, page 96. 

iStow's English Chronicle, London, IQIS, pp. 5U9, 510— 
Sir Thomas Smith was Treasurer from the first constitution of 
the Company (of Virginia) in 1306, till April 28th, 1619. 
And in that time there had passed through his hands about 
£80,000. Stith's Hist. Virginia, book III, p. 180.— Sir Thos. 
Smith had also been Governor of the Somers Islands Company. 
Same, p. 189.— Sir Thomas Smith died Sept. 4th, 1625. He 
is mentioned as Thomas Smith, Esquire, one of the principal 



132 



that age were warmly interested at the same 
time in several different influential companies ; so 
that a skilful and experienced navigator in the 
service of one powerful corporation would be al- 
most equally well known to the members of con- 
temporary associations. In this way Henry Hud- 
son, in addition to the fame acquired by his 
remarkable discoveries, would also possess a 
^'national reputation" as a gallant and successful 
commander in the Muscovy Company's employ ; 
owing to the countless ramifications of these great 
commercial bodies, whose members were to be 
found in every city throughout the kingdom. 

The position of his kinsman Christopher Hud- 
son, as the head of the Merchant Adventurers, 
who had long maintained most intimate relations 
with Germany and the Netherlands, may have 
been among the earliest means of attracting 
towards Henry Hudson the attention of the 
Dutch, whose efforts had also of late been turned 
to the discovery of a shorter passage to India by 
the north. His subsequent brilliant services and 
voyages to the north would strengthen in the 



members of the Muscovy Co., as early as Feb., 1587, in the 
letter of privileges granted by the Emperor of Russia at that 
time to the Museovy Company. 



133 

minds of the leading merchants and capitalists of 
Holland, the conviction that Henry Hudson pos- 
sessed the courage, experience and genius requisite 
to aid them in developing and carrjdng into execu- 
tion plans which might lead to the realization of 
their hopes. 

The first recorded voj^age made by Henry Hud- 
son was undertaken, as we have already observed, 
for the Muscovy or Russia Company. Departing 
from Gravesend the first of May, 1607, with the 
intention of sailing straight across the north pole, 
by the north of what is now called Greenland, 
Hudson found that this land stretched further to 
the eastward than he had anticipated, and that a 
wall of ice, along which he coasted, extended from 
Greenland to Spitzbergen. Forced to relinquish 
the hope of finding a passage in the latter vicinity, 
he once more attempted the entrance of Davis's 
Straits by the north of Greenland. This design 
was also frustrated and he apparently renewed the 
attempt in a lower latitude and nearer Greenland 
on his homeward voyage.^ In this cruise Hudson 
attained a higher degree of latitude than any pre- 

' See Purchas, III, 530. Also Dr. Asher, in Halchiyt Soc. 
Fi(b., 1860, to whom much is due on account of his efforts to 
identify accurately the precise localities visited by Hudson. 
18 



134 

vious navigator. He also remarked the changing 
color of the sea in the neighborhood of Spitzbergen, 
and first noted the amelioration of the temperature 
in his northward progress. His observations as to 
the abundance of whales and 'morses' in those 
waters, by directing attention to that source of 
profit, laid the foundations of the future prosperity 
of Spitzbergen. M}- space will not permit the 
enumeration of Hudson's other important discov- 
eries in this expedition in 1607. He reached 
England on his return on the loth September of 
that year. 

Having the researches of previous writers be- 
fore them, both Mr. Murphy, in his Henry Hudson 
in Holland,^ and Dr. Asher, in Henry Hudson, the 
Navigator, are agreed that the journal of this voy- 
age, contains the earliest information concerning 
Hudson's career. Indeed the latter says : " His 
[Henry Hudson's] doings before the 19th April, 
1607, his family connections, his social position 
are equally unknown to us."^ Both authors place 



1 Henry Hudsoit'm Eolland. M}' Henry C Murphy. The 
Hague, the Brothers Giunta D' Albania 1859. Privately 
printed. — Preface dated April 15th, 1859. 

- Henry Hudson ^ the Navigator. By G. M. Asher, LL.D. 
HaMuyt Soc. Puh., London, 1860. 



135 

no reliance whatever upon the testimony of 
Adrian Van der Donck, whose inaccuracies, and 
tissues of idle inventions, are indeed patent to 
all acquainted Avith the origin and purposes of his 
w^orks/ 

In view of the results developed bj my investi- 
gations respecting Henry JIudson and his antece- 
dents, the journal of this voyage no longer retains 
importance as the starting point in Hudson's 

historv. 

«/ 

On the twenty-second of April, 1608, Henry 
Hudson commenced his second recorded voyage for 
the Muscovy or Russia Company, with the design 



1 This view of Van der Donck's statements comes with pe- 
culiar force from Mr. Murphy, whose investigations, in connection 
with his translation of the Vertoog Van Nieio Nederland ^ and 
his other qualifications, would enable to judge most accurately 
as to Van def Donck's reliability. The passage in which Van 
der Donck refers to Hudson's antecedents is as follows : " This 
country [New Netherland] was first found and discovered in 
the year of our Lord 1609 ; when, at the cost of the privileged 
East India Company, a ship named the Half 3Ioon was fitted 
out to discover a westerly passage to the kingdom of China. 
This ship was commanded by Henry Hudson, as captain and 
supercargo, who was an Englishman by birth, but had resided 
many years in Holland, and was in the employment of the 
East India Company." Beschryvinge Van Niew Ncderlandt. 
4to. Amsterdam, 1656. See iV". Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., New 
Series, vol. I, and Hale. Soc. Pub., 1860, p. 158. 



136 

of ' finding a passage to the East Indies by the 
north-east.'^ 

He had with him his son John Hudson and 
James Sl^rutton or Stratton, wlio liad sailed with 
him the previous year. John Cooke, who had also 
been one of the crew in 1607, now went in the 
capacity of boatswain. Robert Juet, of Lime- 
house, who afterward accompanied him in his two 
last voyages, and finally basely conspired against 
him, now first appears upon the scene as second in 
command and mate. Ludlowe Arnall, or 'Arnold 
Lodlo,' as Prickett styles him, destined to share 
Hudson's tragic fate three 3'ears later, also shipped 
for this cruise, as did Michael Pierce, one of the 
traitors in the 4th voyage who perished miserably. 

The name of Humfrey Gilby likewise occurs in 
the list of sailors preserved in Purchas. Having 
discovered the intimate relations which existed 
between Sir Humphrey (or Sir Humfrey, as Hak- 
luyt calls him) Gilbert and Christopher Hudson, 
it has occurred to me as not improbable that the 
above is one of the many instances of misspelling 
or misprinting continually met with — both in 
Hakluyt and Purchas, and that the person referred 



1 Purchas, III, p. 574. 



137 

to was in reality named Humfrey Gilbert, and 
belonged to the family of the great voyager. This 
conjecture seems the more reasonable as Sir Hum- 
phrey Gilbert is known to have left nine sons.^ 

On the third of June, 1608, Hudson had reached 
the most northern point of Norway, and on the 
11th was in latitude 75° 24', between Spitzbergen 
and Nova Zembla. Four days later he records the 
following curious incident which affords a glimpse 
of the love of the marvellous that has distinguished 
sailors of all ages and of every clime. On the 15th 
of June he writes : " This morning one of our com- 
panie looking over boord saw a Mermaid,^ and call- 
ing up some of the companie to see her, one more 
came up, and by that time shee was come close 
to the ships side, looking earnestly on the men : 
a little after, a Sea came and overturned her : from 
the Navill upward, her backe and breasts were like 
a womans, (as they say that saw her) her body as 
big as one of us ; her skin very white ; and long 
haire hanging downe behind, of colour blacke : in 
her going downe they saw her tayle, which was like 



1 Prince's Worthies of Devon. 

~ A curious print of a mermaid is preserved in De Bry. 
Decimsc Tertise Partis Americse Sectio Prima, page 4, edition 
of 1634. 



138 

the tayle of a Porposse, and speckled like a Macrell. 
Their names that saw her, were Thcmids Hilles and 
Rohert RaynerT ^ 

It is scarcely necessary for me to do more than 
simply refer to Hudson's attempts to pass to the 
north-east beyond Nova Zembla; to his return 
southwards along the islands of w^hich the group 
consists, and to his numerous observations up to 
the time of his arrival in England. To the con- 
cluding passage, however, in Hudson's journal of 
this voyage, I wish to call your particular atten- 
tion, as it illustrates the remarks made at pages 
53 and 54 of this discourse, and will also aid us 
in our enquiries concerning his next voyage. " The 
seventh of August,'' he says, "I used all diligence 
to arrive at London, and therefore now I gave my 
companie a certificate under my hand, of my free 
and willing returne, without perswasion or force of 
any one or more of them ; for at my being at Nova 
Zembla, the sixt of July, voide of hope of a 7iorth-east 
passage (except by the Vaygats, for which I was 
not fitted to trie or prove), / therefore resolved to 
use all meanes I could to sayle to the north-west ; con- 
sidering the time and meanes wee had, if the wind 



1 Purchas, III, p. 575. 



139 

should friend us, as in the first part of our voyage 
it had done, and to make triall of that place called 
Lumleys Inlet, and the furious overfall hy Captain 
Davis, hoping to runne into it an hundred leagues, 
and to returne as God should e^iable mee. But 
now having spent more then halfe the time I had, 
and gone but the shortest part of the way, by 
meanes of contrary winds, I thought it my duty 
to save Victuall, Wages and Tackle, by \\\y speedy 
returne, and not by foolish rashnesse, the time 
being wasted, to lay more charge upon the action 
then necessitie should compell, I arrived at Graves- 
end [England] the six and twentieth of August, 
[1608]."^ 

Henry Hudson's previous discoveries had already 
rendered him famous, and his safe return from 
another perilous voyage to the north Avas hailed 
in England with deep interest and satisfaction. 
The results of his explorations soon spread to the 
continent, where they were received with even 
greater curiosity, and aroused the fears of the Dutch 
East India Company then recently established. 
We are accordingly not surprised to learn from the 
Negociations of President Jeannin, that Hudson 



^Purchas, III, p. 580. 



140 

was soon called to Holland by the directors of that 
corporation at Amsterdam. 

In order to obtain a clear idea of the reasons for 
this step, it will be necessary to glance at the con- 
nection of the Dutch with the discovery of a north- " 
ern passage to India. 

We have already reviewed the northern disco- 
veries made by the English, commencing with Rich- 
ard Chancellor's successful expedition in 1553, and 
we shall now see how closely they were followed 
ultimately in their enterprises by the sagacious 
and energetic Hollanders. As early as 1578 the 
Dutch were trading with Russia; and Captain 
Edge testifies that a year or two later, ' one John 
de Whale, a Netherlander, came to the Bay of 
Saint Nicholas, being drawne thither by the per- 
swasion of some English for their better means of 
interloping.' ^ Sir Jerome Bowes, who was the 
ambassador from Queen Elizabeth to the Czar, 
writing in 1583, says : " The Dutch merchants had 
intruded themselves to trade into those countreys, 
notwithstanding a privilege of the sole trade thither 
was long before granted to the English merchants."^ 



1 PurcJias, III, p. 464. 

2 HaMuyt, I, p. 459. 



141 

Indeed in the month of April of the same year. 
Captain Carlile had taken occasion to urge as a 
powerful argument in fivor of Gilbert's American 
enterprise, that the Netherlanders were interfering 
sadly with the Muscovy Company's Russian trade.^ 

Having secured to themselves influence at the 
court of Moscow, and thus gained a foothold in 
Russia, the Dutch, still following the example of 
the English, began to turn their attention to the 
rich countries lying far to the eastward, and like- 
wise became interested in attempts to discover a 
short northern passage to China, and the Indian 
seas. 

In 1580-81, Oliver Brunei, a Belgian refugee, 
captured by the Russians while serving in the 
Swedish army, was employed to explore the whole 
coast, from the river Petchora to the mouth of the 
Oby, by two Russian merchants, whose curiosity 
had been aroused by the efforts of the Muscovy 
Company. Brunei successfully accomplished the 
undertaking, visiting likewise Yaygats and Nova 
Zembla Proper. He afterwards went to Enkhuy- 
sen, a town in "West Friesland, on the borders of 
Holland, where his representations procured him 
the command of a vessel, in which he undertook a 

J See Ante, p. 98. 

19 



142 

voyage to the Petchora. Here, it is said, he col- 
lected much merchandise, but eventually lost his 
ship, and perhaps his life. 

Brunei's explorations may be considered as the 
suggestive origin of the northern voyages subse- 
quently prosecuted by the Dutch. The edict of 
Philip II, lately become master of Portugal, by 
cutting off their intercourse with Lisbon, and 
depriving them of their trade in eastern produc- 
tions, soon, however, furnished the Netherlanders 
with an additional incentive to seek their riches 
from original sources. The discovery of a short 
passage to the Indies by the north, offered one 
obvious means of defeating the machinations of 
their treacherous enemy, and, if successfully inau- 
gurated, might prove a certain road to commercial 
greatness. Accordingly, the same year that wit- 
nessed the preliminary organization of a company 
in the United Provinces, to attempt the establish- 
ment of a trade with the East Indies by the Cape 
of Good Hope, also beheld William Barentson and 
his brave companions actually setting forth upon 
their first voyage, to discover a north-eastern open- 
ing to the Chinese seas. 

The expedition thus dispatched in 1594, owed 
its original conception to Balthasar de Moucheron, 



143 

a native of Antwerp of noble descent, who had 
long resided as a merchant at Veere, near Mid- 
delburg, the capital of the province of Zealand. 
Having interested several officials of Enkhuysen 
and Middelburg in his plans, he had obtained the 
assistance of the courts of admiralty, as well as 
the sanction of the higher authorities, to fit out 
two vessels, each of one hundred tons burthen, for 
northern explorations. Cornells Nai and Brant 
Tetgales, both Enkhuysen men, were placed in 
command, while the famous John Hugh van Lin- 
schoten was chosen to accompany them in the 
responsible capacity of commercial agent and 
commissioner. The public spirit of the city of 
Amsterdam was aroused by these proceedings, and 
through the efforts of Peter Plantius, ^the Hak- 
luyt of the Netherlands,' a third vessel was 
equipped, and committed to William Barentson 
for a similar purpose. The three ships set sail 
from the Texel together, on the 5th June, 1594, 
and returned in company to Holland about the 
middle of September, having failed to accomplish 
what they had hoped to achieve; although the 
Enkhuysen party had penetrated through Pet's 
strait to the Kara sea, while Barentson had sailed 
completely around the north-eastern extremity of 



144 

Nova Zembla, and discovered a group of islands, 
which he named the Orange islands. 

The further exertions of Barentson and Jacob 
van Heemskerk in the two following years, were 
alike unsuccessful, so far as the great object of 
their search was concerned. The premature death 
of the former intrepid and skilful mariner, who 
perished in the midst of his plans, on the 20th of 
June, 1597, most effectually damped the ardor 
of the Dutch, and led to the temporary abandon- 
ment of their schemes in this direction. 

In the meanwhile, the commerce with Russia 
was immensely increased, and the Netherlanders 
had become such powerful rivals as almost to 
supplant and exclude the English.^ Houtman, 
the brewer's son, also, having doubled the Cape 
of Good Hope, returned to Amsterdam in 1597, 
bringing with him the rarest products of the east. 
Thus the foundations of the great Indian trade 
were finally laid, and companies sprang into exist- 
ence all over Holland, eager to participate in the 
almost fabulous profits accruing from this new 
source of wealth. 

The discontent produced by the unequal for- 
tunes attending the efforts of rival associations, 

illarleian Misc. 



145 

soon awakened a natural solicitude in the minds 
of thoughtful men. Olden Barneveldt, advocate 
of Holland, and leader of the Arminian party, to 
which Grotius himself belonged, comprehending 
the situation at a glance, determined to calm the 
tumult, while at the same time he increased the 
power of himself and his friends, by combining 
the hitherto opposing forces under one govern- 
ment with common interests. Although this plan 
met with stout resistance from some of the more 
successful adventurers, it was finally adopted by 
the States-General; and two years after the Eng- 
lish East India Company was incorporated, viz : 
in 1602, the Republic of Holland established the 
Dutch East India Company, thus creating a pow- 
erful corporation, which, though it originated with 
the peace party, presented a hostile front to all 
foreign foes. 

The rapid growth and ample resources of the 
company may be estimated by the fact, that six 
years after its organization, it had in its service, 
besides smaller vessels, forty large ships, ' armed 
with six hundred pieces of cannon, and manned 
by five thousand sailors.'^ Prior to this, it is 
known to have returned to its shareholders three 



Murphy's Hudson in Holland. 



146 

fourths of their invested capital, in the course of a 
single year.^ 

Although the charter only expressly conferred 
upon the company, the privilege of trading with 
India by the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits 
of Magellan, it is evident that soon after the com- 
j)any was created, the expediency of attempting 
to find a passage by the north-east was freely 
discussed. In fact, the fears of many, lest the 
discovery of a short northern route by rivals, should 
suddenly deprive them of their lucrative trade 
with the east, found expression as early as the 7th 
of August, 1603, in a formal determination to pre- 
vent such a result by every means in their power.^ 

It is, accordingly, easy to picture the consterna- 
tion produced by the accounts of Hudson's return 
from a second remarkable voyage; and we have 
no difficulty in aj^preciating the reasons which 
governed the Amsterdam Directors of the Dutch 
East India Company, in sending a pressing invi- 
tation to the great navigator, to visit Holland and 
confer with them in relation to undertaking, in 
their service, another northern expedition. 



1 Brodhead's Hist. N. Z, I, 23. 

- Register der Resolutien van de Seveniiene, cited by Mr. 
Murphy. 



147 

Hudson left England in the winter of 1608-9. 
The exact period of his arrival in Holland is un- 
certain, as are also the causes which induced him 
to leave the Muscovy Company's employ, and to 
accept the offers of the Dutch. It is probable that 
Van Meteren, the Dutch consul resident in Lon- 
don, was employed to conduct the negociations 
with Hudson. The arguments of this learned 
man, were calculated to have great weight with 
one whose whole energies were devoted to extend- 
ing the range of geographical knowledge. The 
historian may have convinced Hudson, that under 
new auspices he would possess larger opportunities 
for accomplishing the wish of his life. It could 
scarcely have been the hope of pecuniary reward, 
which induced Hudson to listen to the overtures 
of the Netherlanders, for the sum which he was 
to receive for his hazardous services was extremely 
meagre.^ Our acquaintance with his character, and 
our knowledge of his purposes and plans, must also 
preclude this idea, and convince us that it was the 
desire to crown the labors of his life with the tri- 
umphant discovery of a northern passage to India, 
which controlled Hudson's action in this matter. 



1 See Bittch E. 1. Cos contract loith Hudson. Murphy's 
Hudson in Holland, pp. 84, 35, 36. 



148 

Immediately after his arrival in Amsterdam, 
Hudson held several interviews with the resident 
directors of the Dutch East India Company ; and 
laid before them the results of his extensive ex- 
perience in the far north. Having revealed his 
belief in an open polar sea, and the consequent 
existence of a passage that way to India, he pro- 
ceeded to illustrate his theory by arguments drawn 
from the wide range of personal observations. 
His views were fully coincided in by the Rev. 
Peter Plantius, whose great attainments as a 
geographical scholar, lent additional weight to 
the cogent reasoning of Hudson. Impressed by 
the whole bearing of the man, and aroused by 
representations so forcibly and intelligently con- 
veyed, the Amsterdam directors became eager to 
engage the services of the distinguished seaman. 
Reflecting however, that they could not bind the 
whole company, and that the power of sending 
out ships was vested in the Council of Seventeen, 
whose next meeting would be held too late to 
enable a vessel to sail that year with any chance 
of success, they felt obliged to confess that they 
were unprepared to engage at once in an expedi- 
tion, and to rest content with a promise from 
Hudson to return to Amsterdam the following year. 



149 

No sooner were these negociations terminated, 
than advances were made to Hudson by Isaac 
Le Maire, an eminent merchant of Amsterdam, 
born in Tournay in Hainault, who had formerly 
been a director, but was now opposed to the Dutch 
East India Company, and desired to enhst Hudson 
in the service of the King of France. Hudson 
apparently conversed freely concerning his plans 
and aspirations with Le Maire, who communicated 
them with a strong endorsement to President 
Jeannin, one of Henry the Fourth's ambassadors at 
The Hague, specially charged by the king to pro- 
mote the establishment of a French East India Com- 
pany. Rumors of the interview with Le Maire 
soon reached the ears of the Amsterdam directors, 
who, having written to the other Chambers, im- 
mediately recalled Hudson, and entered into a 
formal contract with him to conduct a vessel forth- 
with to the north ; so that when Le Maire, having 
gained Henry's consent, and being provided with 
four thousand crowns for the purpose, applied to 
Hudson to undertake a voyage^ for the French 



1 Ne(j. (hi Pres. Jeannin, Lettre du 25 Janvier, 1609. Ibid. 
Lettre du roi du vhigt-huitiome Fevrier, 1609, quoted by Mr. 
Murphy. An English translation of Jeannin's letter is pub- 
lished in the Hakluyt Soc. Pub., 1860, pp. 244-254. 
20 



150 

monarch, he found the discoverer already pledged 
to the Dutch East India Company. 

A copy of the contract between Hudson and the 
Chamber of Amsterdam, was discovered a few 
years since by Mr. Murphy, in the royal Archives 
at The Hague, appended to a manuscript history 
of the corporation, prepared by Mr. P. Van Dam, 
who was the company's Counsel, from 1652 to 1706. 
From this we learn, that the original was signed 
on the 8th of January, 1609, and that the services 
of an interpreter were required to aid Hudson in 
his communications with the Company.^ 

The contract having been completed, the in- 
structions for the voyage were prepared by the 
Amsterdam Chamber, whose action was sanctioned 
by the Council of Seventeen, on the 25th of March. ^ 

In response to a resolution of that body, passed 
at their next meeting,^ copies of both documents 



1 The use of Uendricic for Henry, in Hudson's name, is a vul- 
garism. After what has been said, it is, perhaps, superfluous 
to remark that even in the body of the contract, and in the 
signature, in the Dutch copy, the whole name is spelled in 
plain English, Henry Hudson. 

-Res. van der Seventicne, March 25, 1609, cited by Mr. 
Murphy. 

3 For an interesting account of the internal organization of 
the company, see Henry Hudson in Holland , p. 21. 



151 

were afterwards sent to each of the several Cham- 
bers. It clearly appears from the authentic copy 
of the contract, and the abstract of the instruc- 
tions preserved by Mr. Van Dam, that the direct- 
ors agreed to furnish a small vessel of about sixty 
tons, well provisioned and manned, in which Hud- 
son should sail about the first of April, " to search 
for a passage by the North, around by the North 
side of Nova Zembla ;" and he was to continue thus 
along that parallel until he should " be able to sail 
Southward to the latitude of sixty degrees." ^ " He 
was further ordered by his instructions, to think 
of discovering no other routes or passages, except 
the route around by the north and north-east 
above Nova Zembla; with this additional provi- 
sion, that if it could not be accomplished at that 
time, another route would be the subject of further 
consideration for another voyage."^ 

The sum of $320 was to be paid to Hudson for his 
outfit, and for the support of his wife and children, 
and in case he lost his life, the directors were to give 
his widow $80 ! Should he find "the passage good 
and suitable for the company to use," the directors 



1 Murphy, pp. 34, 35. See D. E. I. Co.'s contract with 
Hudson. 

-Jbid, p. 39, Mr. Van Dam's abstract of Instructions. 



152 

declared they would reward Hudson " for his dan- 
gers, trouble and knowledge, m their discretion," 
with which the before mentioned Hudson is con- 
tent." 

Having thus completed his preliminary arrange- 
ments with the Dutch E. I. Company, Hudson 
spent the intervening time before his departure, in 
grave consultation with the Directors, and with 
such other leading men as were competent to ad- 
vise with him concerning his contemplated voyage. 
Preeminent among the latter stood the Belgian 
emigrant, Peter Plantius, minister of the Keformed 
Church in Amsterdam, whose varied knowledge 
of maritime affairs, was the result of an unweary- 
ing spirit of philosophical investigation. Born in 
Flanders, and compelled to seek refuge from per- 
secution in Holland, Plantius had early engaged 
with Usselincx in endeavoring to establish a West 
India Company, and soon became widely known 
as one of the leaders of the Calvinistic or Orange 
party. He was an ardent believer, however, in the 
practicability of reaching India by the north-east, 
and accordingly, took a deep interest ^ in Hudson's 



1 Van Meteren. Henry Hudson in Holland. Hudson the 
Navigator. 



153 

plans ; as he had done in those of Barentson fifteen 
years earlier.^ 

Purchas tells us that he found among Hakluyt's 
papers, the translations of two documents loaned 
by Piantius to Hudson. The first contained mem- 
oranda made by Barentson in the course of his 
voyage in 1595. At the top of the sheet was the 
following note by Hudson : " This was written by 
William Barentson in a loose paper which was lent 
mee, by the Rev. Peter Piantius, in Amsterdam, 
March the seven and twentieth, 1609." ^ The other 
document was thus prefaced : " A Treatise of Iver 
Boty, a Gronlander, translated out of the Norsh 
language into High Dutch, in the yeere 1560, and 
after, out of High Dutch into Low Dutch, by Wil- 
liam Barentson, of Amsterdam, who was chiefe pi- 
lot aforesaid. The same copie in High Dutch is in 
the hands of Jodocus Hondius, which I have scene. 
And this was translated out of Low Dutch by 
Master William Stere,marchant, in the yeere 1608, 
for the vse of me, Henrie Hudson. William Bar- 
entson's Booke is in the hands of Master Peter 
Plantivs, who lent the same vnto me." ^ 



1 Purchas, III, p. 478, ed. of 1625. De Veer's Voyages. 
Hakluyt Soc. Pub., 1853, p. 41. Biogr. Univ. 

2 Purchas, III, pp. 518. 

3 Purchas, III, pp. 518. 



154 

Jodocus Hondius, mentioned above, had placed 
Hudson under many obligations. Like his friend 
Plantius, he was of Flemish extraction, having 
been born in Ghent, in 1563. Passing over to 
England at an early age, during the troubles in 
the Low Countries, he there engraved portraits of 
Queen Elizabeth, Sir Francis Drake, and Thomas 
Cavendish, the famous navigator. Whether he be- 
came acquainted with Hudson at that period of 
his life, does not appear. Having afterwards re- 
moved to Amsterdam, he engaged extensively in 
the business of map making, and gained much ap- 
jDlause on account of the beauty and comparative 
accuracy of his work, as well as for the extent of 
his geographical acquirements. He was the adviser 
and interpreter of Hudson in the latter's communi- 
cations with the Dutch E. I. Company, and we find 
that he afterwards signed the Contract as a witness^ 

Hudson's intercourse with Plantius and Hondius 
was of such a confidential character, that he ap- 
parently revealed to these friends, his most che- 
rished purposes and plans. We have not forgotten, 
that in 1583, Thomas Hudson had assisted at the 
deliberations which resulted in the famous voyages 

of John Davis.^ Now, in 1609, his relative Henry 

• 

1 See ante, p. 138. 



155 

Hudson, probably referred to the fact that he had 
long regarded those explorations, as containing 
inducements for further search in the same di- 
rection, in case of failure in the north-east. Hud- 
son also produced certain letters and maps " which 
his friend. Captain John Smith, had sent him from 
Virginia, and by which he informed him that there 
was a sea leading into the Western ocean, by the 
north of the southern English colony."^ These 
authorities were hailed with interest b}^ Plantius, 
who brought forward at this stage of the conference, 
the log books of George Way mouth, who had 
visited the mouth of Hudson's Straits several years 
before, in the employ of the English East India 
Company, and had also sailed as far south as lati- 
tude 41° 30' north. - 

After collating Smith's accounts with the results 
of Waymouth's, and, probably, Gosnold's^ voyages, 
Hudson was of the opinion that there was also ample 



1 Van Metercn's Historic Dcr Nederlanden . Hague, 1G14, 
Fol. 629, a. Hakluyt, Soc. Pub. 1860, p,118. 

2 2d Latin ed., Hudson Tract, Amsterdam, 161.3. Hudson 
in Holland. Hudson the Navigator. Rundall's Voi/agcs to the 
North West. Hakluyt Soc. Pub. 1849. 

3 See Juet's Journal of tlie 3d voyage, Purchas, III, p. 588, 
ed. of 1625. 



156 

opportunity •for discovery between the Chesapeake 
bay and the extreme southern point, visited by the 
two explorers/ He thought, moreover, that the 
road through the "Narrows," mentioned by Way- 
mouth, might lead to India. The latter opinion 
was however stoutly combatted by Plantius. 

We shall presently discover the comparative in- 
fluence of these various views, upon the future move- 
ments of the discoverer. 

On Saturday, the fourth of April 1609,^ Henry 
Hudson set sail from Amsterdam, and * by twelve 
of the clocke' on Monday, having passed the Texel, 
was two leagues off the land. His vessel, the 
Half Moon, a yacht of about eighty tons burden, 
was manned by a motley crew of sixteen or 
eighteen^ English and Dutch sailors. His mate 
was likewise a Netherlander. Robert Juet, who 
had sailed in that capacity the preceding year, 
now^ acted as Captain's clerk, and fortunately for 



1 Compare what Strachei/s Tirgmia says of Argal, in 1610. 
Hakluyt Soc. Pub., 1849, 42, 43, also Purchas IV, 1762. 

2 New Style. 

3 There is a doubt as to the exact number. Larabrechsten 
says 16 men. Van Meteren first speaks of a ' crew of eighteen 
or twenty hands;' but he afterwards tells us that Hudson (in 
making proposals to the D. E. I. Company for another voyage), 
wished their number raised to twenty. 



157 

posterity, also kept the curious Journal of the 
voyage, which is still preserved in Purchas's third 
volume. ^ 

It is certainly greatly to be deplored that Hud- 
son's own Journal, which De Laet had before him 
when he wrote the "Nieuwe Werelt," ^ has entirely 
disappeared, together with such other documents 
as Hudson on his return may have forwarded to 
the Dutch East India Company. ^ By the loss of 
these invaluable manuscripts, we are reduced to 
the necessity of gleaning the particulars of this 
voyage, from the statements of others, not tho- 
roughly competent to judge of the motives, Avhich 
actuated Hudson at the various stages of his pro- 
gress. 

As we have seen, Hudson left Holland with the 
intention of searching " for a passage by the North, 
around by the North side of Nova Zembla." Van 
Meteren tells us, that having doubled the Cape of 



1 John Coleman, also one of Hudson's former companions, 
is the only other Englishman whose name is mentioned as hav- 
ing been on board the Half Moon. 

2 Printed in 1625. 

3 Mr. Murphy was unable to discover any traces of these 
papers in Holland. 

21 



158 

Norway ^ the 5th of May, he " directed his course 
along the northern coasts towards Nova Zembla ; 
but he there found the sea as full of ice as he 
had found it the preceding year, so that he lost 
the hope of effecting any thing during the season. 
This circumstance, and the cold which some of 
his men who had been in the East Indies could 
not bear, caused quarrels among the crew, they 
being partly English, and partl}^ Dutch; upon 
which the captain, Henry Hudson, laid before them 
two propositions ; the first of these was, to go to 
the coast of America, to the latitude of 40°." 
This idea had been suggested by Captain Johi) 
Smith's maps and letters. "The other proposi- 
tion was, to direct their search to Davis's Straits." ^ 
The latter was the plan which Hudson had en- 
tertained, but eventually abandoned, when in a 
somewhat similar position, on the 6th of July, 
1608.2 

As his instructions were to retrace his steps, 
and return to Amsterdam in case of a failure to 
find a passage to the North East, Hudson would 



iThe North Cape. Juet's Journal, Purchas, III, p. 580. 

2 Van Meteren's Hist, der Neder. The Hague, 1614. Foh 
629, a. Hakluyt See. Pub., 1860, pp. 147-149. 

3 See ante^ p. 188. 



159 

have been entirely justified in relinquishing further 
effort, now that he found himself with a mutinous 
crew, utterly baffled by the ice in his endeavors 
to discover an opening in that direction to the 
Celestial Empire. His anxiety to accomplish 
something worthy of his reputation, however, 
would not suffer him to adopt such a course. 
He perhaps argued that it had not occurred to the 
Directors, that insurmountable obstacles might pre- 
sent themselves, before his vessel fairly reached 
Nova Zembla ; and he may accordingly have con- 
cluded that in his present situation, he possessed 
discretionary power. On the other hand, we are 
distinctly told by Mr. Van Dam, that " having 
found the sea there * * '=' as full of ice as it was 
in the previous years," Hudson "determined con- 
trary to his instructions, to seek another route. "^ 
Whatever may have been his reasoning, we know 
that fortunately he did assume the responsibility 
of sailing in the opposite direction. 

On the 14th of May, having gained the consent 
of his officers and crew, Hudson shaped his course 
towards the setting sun, hoping to discover an un- 



1 MS. History of the D. E. I. Company, by Mr. P. Van 
Dam. in the Archives at the Plague. Passage translated by 
Mr. Murphy, Hudson in Holland, p. 33. 



160 

interrupted passage to India, in the unexplored 
regions lying to the north of the infant Colony 
of Virginia, ^ 

A fortnight later, he had replenished his water 
casks at Stromo, one of the Faroe group, and was 
steering away south-west in hopes of seeing Busse 
Island, which one of Frobisher's ships had dis- 
covered thirty years before. Foiled in this attempt, 
he still pursued his voyage with unfaltering cour- 
age, for nearly a month, although beset by a suc- 
cession of fierce gales, and on the second of July, 
was at soundings off the grand bank of Newfound- 
land, with foremast gone and sails badly rent. 
Falling in next day with " a great fleet of French- 
men which lay fishing on the banke," he " spake 
with none of them;" but soon after, when becalmed, 
he allowed his own company to "• try" for cod. 

On the twelfth, the American shores gladdened 
the sight of the expectant mariner, and on the 
eighteenth, Hudson anchored in a safe and com- 
modious harbor on the coast of Maine.^ 

Here the lawless character of the crew displayed 



1 Van Meteren is the only authority for the important events 
which took place between the 5th and 14th of May. Juet i» 

purposely silent. 

~ Probably Penobscot Bay. 



161 

itself, in a wanton attack upon a party of Indians^ 
who had made their appearance in a couple of 
French shallops. Distressed and alarmed by the 
occurrence, Hudson once more stood out to sea, 
and did not approach the land until the third of 
August, when he sent five men ashore, who re- 
turned laden with rose trees and goodly grapes. 
Hearing the voices of men calling, the next morn- 
ing, he again sent a boat's crew from the ship, 
thinking there " had been some Christians left on , 
the land."' The sailors found none but " Savages," 
who manifested however, great delight on their 
approach. Supposing that the point of land which 
he now saw to the southward, was the same head- 
land which Gosnold, in 1602, had named " Cape 
Cod," he held on his way and two weeks afterward 
found himself ofi" King James' River in Virginia. 

Resisting the temptation to visit his friend 
Smith, whom he would have found preparing to 
return to England, Henry Hudson, still intent up- 
on the great object of his search, once more altered 
the course of the yacht, and steering northward, 
on Friday, the twenty-eighth day of August, 
1609, discovered the great bay now called Dela- 
ware. 

At noon, having passed the lower cape, the shores 



162 

were descried stretching away north-west, ^ while 
land was also seen towards the north-east, "which 
Hudson at first took to be an island, but it proved 
to be the main land and the second point ^ of the 
bay." ^ The remainder of the day was spent in 
sounding the waters,which were in some parts 
filled with shoals, as at the present time, so that 
the Half Moo7i, though of light draught, struck 
upon the hidden sands. " Hee that will throughly 
Discover this great Bay" says Juet, " must have a 
small Pinnasse that must draw but four or five 
foote water, to sound before him." 

At sunset, the master anchored his little vessel 
" in eight fathomes water," and found a tide run- 
ning from the north-west ; " and it riseth one 
fathome, and floweth South-South-east." ^ 



1 Juet's Journal, Purchas III, p. 590. 

2 Cape May. 

3De Laet's Nieuwe Werelt. fol. Amsterdam, 1625, Book 
III, Chap. 7. Hazard's Auuals, p. 3. N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll. 
Vol. I, N. S., p. 290. 

4 Juet's Journal, Purchas, III, 590. Van der Donck speak- 
ing of the South River, or Delaware, says : " This is the place 
where the ship Half Moon first took possession." Dr. O'Cal- 
laghan, in his Hist, of New Netherland, Vol. I, p. 34, quotes 
the Eeschryving Van Nieuw Nederlandt, as above, and also 
says : " Here he [Hudson], anchored the Half Moon in eight 
fathom water, and took possession, it is said, of the country." 



163 

" From the strength of the current that set out 
and caused the accumulation of sands," he '•' sus- 
pected that a large river discharged into the bay." ^ 

In the course of the night, the weather, which 
had been intensely warm all day, suddenly changed. 
A passing storm dispelled the heat, while the 
breeze blowing from the land refreshed the weary 
men with the moist perfumes of sweet shrubs and 
summer flowers. At early dawn the explorations 
were renewed, and Hudson stood towards the 
" norther land," where he again " strooke ground" 
with his rudder. Convinced that the road to Chi- 
na did not lie that way, he hastened to emerge 
from the Delaware, in search of new channels 
through which he might pass quickly to India, the 
goal of his wishes. Imbued with this idea, 
he continued his voyage along the coast of New 
Jersey, and cast anchor on the 3d of September, 
within the shelter of what is now Sandy Hook. 
His subsequent discovery of the river which 
bears his name, and his ascent to a point in the 
vicinity of the present city of Albany, are facts 
too well known to require repetition here.^ 



iDe'Laet's Nieuwe Werelt. 

2 The loss of Hudson's own Journal, in connection with his 
discovery of Delaware Bay, is indeed irreparable. Our sense of 



164 

On the return voyage Van Meteren informs us, 
that Hudson and his company held council to- 
gether, but were of different opinions. " The 
mate, a Dutchman, advised to winter in New- 
foundland, and to search the north-western pas- 
sage of Davis throughout. This was opposed 
by Hudson. He was afraid of his mutinous crew, 
who had sometimes savagely threatened him, and 
he feared that during the cold season they would 
entirely consume their provisions, and would then 
be obliged to return. Many of the crew also were 
ill and sickly. Nobody however spoke of return- 
ing home to Holland, which circumstance made 
the captain still more suspicious. He proposed 



the loss is increased by the remembrance thiit Hudson's River, 
Hudson's Strait and Hudson's Bay had probably been visited 
long before Hudson explored them; while it is pretty well 
established that Delaware Bay had never been visited till he 
discovered it in 1609. After a careful study of the subject, 
the above is the substance of all I have to oiFer respecting 
Hudson's discovery of Delaware, except that I give complete in 
the Appendix the descriptions of De Laet,aud of Juet in Purchas. 
I have indeed collected much interesting matter concerning 
the discovery of the same bay in the following year (1610), 
by Argal, which I had intended to use in this connection. 
But I have concluded that it would be more appropriate to 
make use of these labors to illustrate a subject which* I pro- 
pose to discuss on a future occasion, viz : the oriyin of the 
name of the State. 



165 

therefore to sail to Ireland, and winter there ; to 
which they all agreed. At last they arrived at 
Dartmouth, in England, the 7th of November, 
whence they informed their employers, the Direc- 
tors of the Dutch East India Company, of their voy- 
age. They proposed to them to go out again for a 
search in the north-west, and that besides the pay, fif- 
teen hundred florins should be laid out for an addi- 
tional supply of provisions. Hudson also wanted six 
or seven of his crew exchanged for others, and their 
number raised to twenty. He was then going to 
leave Dartmouth on the first of March, so as to be 
in the north-west towards the end of that month, 
and there to spend the whole of April, and the first 
half of May, in catching whales and other fish in 
the neighborhood of Panar Island;^ thence to sail 
to the north-west, and there to pass the time till 
the middle of September, and then return to Hol- 
land, along the north-eastern coast of Scotland. 
Thus this voyage passed oif." 

" A long time elapsed through contrary winds, be- 
fore the Company could be informed of the arrival 
of the ship in England. Then they ordered the 



1 Somewhere near the coast of Newfoundland. No such 
name as Panar Island occurs on old maps. Dr. Asher is of the 
opinion that the island meant is the Ys. de Arena of Ortelius. 
22 



166 

ship and crew to return as soon as possible. But 
when they were going to do so, Henry Hudso n and 
the other Englishmen of the ship were commanded 
by the government there not to leave England, but 
to serve their own country. Many persons thought 
it rather hard and unfair that these sailors should 
thus be prevented from laying their accounts and 
reports before their employers, chiefly as the enter- 
prise in which they had been engaged was such as 
to benefit navigation in general. These latter 
events took place in January, 1610," ^ 

In the interval, it is probable that Hudson was 
present at the grand festival given by the English 
East India Company, on the 30th of December 
(1609), on board the great ship "2/ie Trades Increase." 
On this occasion his old friend Sir Thomas Smith,gov- 
ernor of the company, received from his majesty, 
King James, " a very faire chaine of gold, with a 
Jewell wherein was the King's picture." ^ 

After a detention of eight months in England 
the Half Moon? reached Aaisterdam in the summer 



1 Van Meteren, Historie der Nederlanden. Hague, 1614, 
Folio 629, a. For English translation see Hakluyt Soc. Pub., 
1860, pp. 151-153. 

'^ Stow's Chronicle, pp. 509, 510. 

2 On the 6th of March, 1615, she was finally wrecked and 
lost on the Island of MauritivK. Brodhead, I, 43. 



167 

of 1610. In the month of April precedmg, her 
hite commander Henry Hudson,^ once more sailed 
under English auspices in searcii of a north-west 
passage. From this voyage he was destined never 
to return. Again cursed with a wicked and mu- 
tinous company, he encountered hardships and 
sufferings from their criminal misconduct, which 
the artful inventions of the survivors skilfully 
concealed. Though he had divided even with tears 
his last bread with his men, yet on midsummer's 
day, 1611. his ungrateful crew, thrusting him into 
a frail boat, with his son, ^ and several sick 
sailors, cut him adrift, to perish amid the arctic 
winds and waves of the " great waste of waters," 
which bearing his name, " is his tomb and his monu- 
ment."^ 

Two centuries and a half have elapsed since 
Delaware's discoverer ended his heroic labors and 



' For names of his employers, see Hakluyt Soc. Pub., 1860. 
p. 255. 

2 For account of his son, John Hudson, see Appendix I. 

3 Bancroft, II, pp. 265-275, 19th edition. The eloquent 
and exact historian of the United States gives a graphic sketch 
of Hudson's career, in his second volume. Mr. Brodhead, in 
his History of New York, and Dr. O'Callaghan, in hm History 
of New Netherlands also furnish exceedingly interesting ac- 
counts of Hudson's life and voyages. 



168 

met his tragic fate; yet to-day three nationalities 
linger with pleasure over the incidents of his ro- 
mantic career, and find subjects of common pride 
in the record of his brilliant explorations ; while 
the silver thread of a great internal improvement^ 
connecting the waters of the bay with those of the 
river which he also discovered, symbolizes the 
unity of interest which the States of Delaware and 
New York must alwavs retain in the name of 
Henry Hudson. 



1 The Delaware and Hudson canal. 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX. 



Henry Hudson's Descendants. 

It is apparent from the contract between the Dutch 
East India Company and Henry Hudson that he had 
several chikh'en besides the " only son " so often refer- 
red to by writers during the last two hundred years. 
I have taken the trouble to examine various authorities 
for information relative to this son, who accompanied 
his father in the two voyages to the l^orth in the years 
1607 and 1608, was with Lim, perhaps, in 1609, when 
he made his great discoveries in this part of the New 
World, and finally perished with him in his last 
voyage in 1611. I have been unable to glean any 
thing further, except the fact that his full name was 
John Hudson, having probably been named after 
John Hudson, son of Henry Hudson the elder (see 
pages 45 and 127), and that in the Journal of the 
Voyage to the North, in 1607, by Henry Hudson and 
John Playse, he is described as "aBoy,"^ while in 
Hudson's own Journal of the second voyage, in 1608, 
he is mentioned as one of the crew, having apparently 



1 Purchas III, 567, ed. of 1625. 



172 



at that time attained to the full dignity of a seaman.^ 
Of the other children, of whose existence even the 
world had been unaware, until the very recent dis- 
covery of the East India Company's contract, I have 
been unable to learn any thing. It is possible that 
some of their descendants are still to be found. If 
inquiries were diligently set on foot by persons inter- 
ested in historical researches in different parts of the 
world, they might lead to the discovery of Hudson's 
posterity, and perhaps reveal many interesting facts, or 
even bring to light a truthful representation of the 
great discoverer himself. 

Up to this time, excepting the imaginary description 
in which the humorous Mr. Knickerbocker indulges 
in his veracious history^ — no writer, as far as my 
knowledge extends, alludes to the personal appearance 
of Hudson ; and we are told by the best authority 
" that not even a contemporaneous print of doubtful 
authenticity " exists to perpetuate the form or deline- 
ate the features of the intrepid navigator. 

It is not impossible, however, that his old friend 
Jodocus Hondius engraved Hudson's portrait, and that 
it may yet be found in some odd corner. 



iPurchas III, p. 574, ed, of 1G25, Dr. Asher in a foot note (p. 
122, Hakluyt Soc. Pub., 18G0), says: "Several works on arctic 
discovery assert that this John Hudson was tlie son of the great navi- 
gator. This is merely a conjecture, though not an unlikely one. It 
rests upon the fact that John was a boi/ when he lost his life with his 
supposed father." From what is said above it would appear that 
John Hudson was not a boy when he lost his life. As to his having 
been the son of Henry Hudson there can be no doubt, for Purchas 
himself (Vol. V, p. 818, 22d line, ed. of 1G26), declares that such was 
the fact. 

2 Knickerbocker's Hist. N. Y., p. 78. 



173 



I have been informed by a gentleman whose grace- 
ful and scholarly contributions to literature have 
attracted a wide circle of admirers, that an intelligent 
Hollander mentioned to him several years since that 
he was cognizant of the fact that descendants of Henry 
Hudson still lived in Amsterdam. From some facts, 
however, which I have lately obtained, I am inclined 
to believe that the descendants of Hudson are still 
living in England. 

II. 

Richard Hakluyt. 

Richard Hakluyt, descended from an ancient family 
loDg seated. in the county of Hereford, in England, 
was born, it is supposed, in or near London, about the 
year 1553. He received his preliminary education at 
Westminster school, and it was while sojourning at 
" that fruitful nurserie," as one of the Queen's scholars, 
that he paid a visit to his cousin, Master Richard 
Hakluyt, a gentleman of the Middle Temple, who first 
implanted in his mind the love of cosmography, and 
turned his attention to maritime discoveries. At the 
age of seventeen he was elected to Christ Church Col- 
lege, Oxford. Four years later he took his degree of 
Bachelor of Arts, and on the 27th June, 1577, he re- 
ceived that of Master of Arts, Some years afterward 
he addressed letters to Lord Admiral Howard and Sir 
Francis Walsingham, with a view to the permanent 
establishment of a course of lectures on navigation ; 
and prior to the year 1589 it appears that he himself 
delivered discourses on the subject. It is said that it 
was proposed to him to accompany Sir Humphrey 
28 



174 



Gilbert to N^ew Foundland. "Whatever may have 
been the fact, we know that he did not go, and that 
shortly afterward he was appointed chaplain to Sir 
Edward Stafford, ambassador from Queen Elizabeth 
to the court of France. While residing in Paris about 
the year 1588, by the Queen's mandate he became pre- 
bendary of Bristol. He did not, however, return to 
England until 1588. In this year he was one of the 
assignees of Sir Walter Ralegh's patent. In 1594 he 
married, and nine years later succeeded Dr. Richard 
Webster as a prebendary of Westminster. He died 
on the 23d November, 1616, and was buried in "the 
Abbey Church of Westminster, dedicated to St. Peter, 
on the 26th of the same month. "^ A full account of 
his various works may be found in Mr. Winter Jones's 
introduction to the Hakluyt Society Publications for 
1850. 

III. 

Samuel Purchas. 

The Reverend Samuel Purchas an English clergy- 
man, whose principal work, the Pilgrimes, and Pilgrim- 
age, is so frequently referred to in the preceding pages, 
was a native of Thacksted in Essex, where he was born 
in the year 1577. After studying at Cambridge, "he 
became Minister of Eastwood in Rockford hundred in 
his own county, but being desirous to forward and 
prosecute his natural Genie he had to the collecting and 
writing of voyages, travels, and pilgrimages, left his 
cure to his Brother, and by the favor of the Bishop of 
London, got to be Parson of St. Martin's churcli 



'Wood's Athenoe Oxonienses, I, 350, ed. 1G90. 



175 



within Ludgate;" and was also made Chaplain to the 
Arclibishop of Canterbuiy. Wood in his Fasti 
Oxonienses, (Vol. I, pp. 821, 822), gives a list of his 
works, and says, " by the publishing of which books 
he brought himself into debt, but died not in prison, 
as some have said, but in his own house, (a little while 
after the king had promised him a Deanery) about 
1628, aged 51." Boissard,' Biblioiheca, (ed. 1650), de- 
scribes him as "an Englishman admirably skilled in lan- 
guages and human and divine arts ; a very great 
philosopher, historian and theologian ; a faithful priest 
of his own church ; very widely known for his many 
excellent writings, and especially for his large volumes 
pertaining to the East and West Indies." 

IV. 

Dr. John Dee. 

Dr. John Dee was born in London, July 13th, 1527, 
and died at Mortlake, six miles distant, in 1607 or 
1608. He was educated at Cambridge, and distin- 
guished himself in science. After a short tour in 
Holland, he was elected fellow of Trinity College, and 
in 1548 took his degree as Master of Arts. Incurring 
the suspicion of being a conjurer, he repaired to the 
continent, resided two years at the University of 
Louvain, and visited France, spending some time at 
the College of Rheims. On his return to England, in 
1551, Dee's learning recommended him to the patron- 
age of Edward VI. Shortly after the accession of 
Queen Mary, he was accused of practising against the 
Queen's life by enchantment, and he was subjected to 
a protracted trial and long imprisonment, but was re- 



176 



leased in 1555. On Elizabeth's accession to the 
throne he was introduced to the Queen, and requested 
to name a propitious day for the coronation. He again 
returned to the continent, where he was supposed to 
have acted as a secret agent for the English govern- 
ment. In 1571 he fell dangerously ill abroad, and the 
Queen sent two of her own physicians to his relief. 
After his return he settled at Mortlake, where he was 
engaged for some years in his favorite pursuits and 
studies, and calculated horoscopes and nativities for 
private patrons. In 1576 the people in the neighbor- 
hood attacked his house, from prejudice against his 
occult science, and destroyed his furniture and library. 
In 1578 he was again sent abroad, and after his return 
he recommenced his experiments in the black science 
with one Edward Kelly, an apothecary of depraved 
character, who had had his ears cropped for forgery. 
They went to the continent together, and visited the 
Emperor at Prague, where Dee and Kelly finally sepa- 
rated. Returning once more to England, Dee was 
appointed Chancellor of St. Paul's Cathedral, and soon 
after Warden of Manchester College. Leaving this 
employment in 1602 or 1604, he took up his residence 
again at Mortlake, where he died. 

" His private diary, written in a very small, illegible 
hand, on the margins of old almanacs," was " dis- 
covered a few years ago by Mr. W. H. Black, in the 
library of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford." " The 
Catalogue of his Library of Manuscripts, made by 
himself before his house was plundered by the popu- 
lace, is preserved in the Library of Trinity College, 
Cambridge." Both of these curious documents were 
edited, with valuable notes, by James Orchard Halli- 
well, Esq., F. R. S., and were published in 1842 by the 



177 



Camden Society of London. For an extended notice 
of Dr. Dee and his works, see Chalmer's Gen. Biog. 
Did, London, 1813, vol. 11th, pp. 378 - 388. D'Israeli 
in his AmenUies of Literature gives an appreciative 
analysis of Dr. Dee's character. 



V. 

Extracts from the Private Diary op Dr. Dee. 

" 1577, ISTov. 6th. Sir Umfrey Gilbert cam to me to 
Mortlak. 

"InTov. 22d. I rod to Windsor to the Q. Majestic. 
ISTov. 25th. I spake with the Quene hora quinta. Nov. 
28th. I spake with the Quene hora quinta ; I spake 
with Mr. Secretary "Walsingham.^ I declared to the 
Quene her title to Greenland, Estetiland and Frise- 
land." Pp. 3-4. 

" 1578, June 30. I told Mr. Daniel Eogers,^ Mr. 
Hackluyt of the Middle Temple being by, thatKyng 
Arthur and King Maty, both of them, did conquier 
Gelindia, lately called Friseland, which he so noted 
presently in his written copy of Monumethensis,^ for 
he had no printed boke therof." * * * 

" 1578, August 5th. Mr. Eaynolds, of Bridewell, 
tok his leave of me as he passed toward Darthmouth, 



' " Ashmole informs us that Walsingham continued for a length of 
time one of Dr. Dee's best patrons." 

2 Rogers was a member of the University of Oxford, and a large 
common place-book in his handwriting is in Archbishop Tenison's 
library in St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. 

3 " That is Galfridus Monumetensis de gestis regum Britannim. Hack- 
luyt mentions this fact in his collection of voyages." 



178 



to go with Sir Umfry Gilbert toward Hocheleya." 
P. 4. 

"1579, Oct. 18th. Mr. Adrian Gilbert and John 
Davys reconcyled themselves to me, and disclosed 
some of Emery, his most uuhonest, hypocriticall and 
devilish dealings and devises agaynst me and other, 
and likewise of that errant strompet her abominable 
wordes and dedes ; and John Davys sayd that he might 
•curse the tyme that ever he knew Emery, and so much 
followed his wicked cownsayle and advyse. So just 
is God !" 

" 1580, Aug. 28. My dealing with Sir Humfrey Gil- 
bert for his graunt of discovery." P. 8. 

" 1580, Sept. 10th. Sir Humfrey Gilbert graunted me 
my request to him, made by letter, for the royaltyes 
•of discovery all to the North above the parallell of the 
50 degree of latitude, in the presence of Stoner, Sir 
John Gilbert, his servant or reteiner ; and thereuppon 
toke me by the hand with faithful promises in his 
lodging of John Cooke's howse in Wichcross strete, 
where wee dyned onely us three together, being Sat- 
terday." P. 8. 

" 1581, March 23d. At Mortlak cam to me Hugh 
Smyth, who had returned from Magellan straights 
and Vaygatz." * * * * 

"June 17th (1581). Yong Mr. Hawkins, who had 
"byn with Sir Francis Drake, cam to me to Mortlake." 
P. 11. 

"1582, July 16th. A meridie hor. 3i cam Sir 
George Peckham to me to know the tytle for Novem- 
bega in respect of Spayn and Portugall parting the 
whole world's distilleryes. He promysed me of his 
gift and of his patient * * * of the new conquest, 



179 



and tlioraglit to get so moclie of Mr. Gerardes gift to 
he sent me withseale within a few days." P. 16. 

" 1583, Feb'y 4tli. Mr. Edmunds, of the Privie 
'Chamfeer, Mr. Lee, who had byn in Moschovia, cam 
to be acquaynted with me," P. 18. 

"1583, March 17th. Mr. John Davys went to Chel- 
sey with Mr. Adrien Gilbert to Mr. Radforths, and so 
the ISth day from thence towards Devonshyre." P. 19. 

" 1585, Aug. 7th, Mr. William Burrow passed by 
me." P. 21. 

" 1589, Dec. 29. Mr. Adrian Gilbert cam to me to 
Mortlak, and oft'red me a^ much as I could require at 
Ms hands, both for my goods carryed away, and for 
the mynes." P. 32. 

" 1590, April 16th. Good Sir Francis Walsingham 
died at night hora undecima." P. 33. 

" 1590, May 18th, The two gentlemen, the unckle 
Mr. Richard Candish, and his nephew the most famous 
Mr. Thomas Candish, who had sayled rownd the world, 
did visit me at Mortlake." Pp. 33 - 34. 

" 1594, April let. Capitayn Hendor^ made acquaynt- 
:ance with me, and shewed me a part of his poll icy 
against the Spanishe King his intended mischief 
agaynst her Majestic and this real me." P. 49. 

" 1595, Oct. 9th. I dyned with Syr Walter Rawlegh 
•at Durham Howse." P. 54. 



' "Dr. Dee has preserved several interesting notices of his intima- 
'cies with the principal navigators of his time. A general reference to 
Mackluyt will he sufficient." 



180 



VI. 

Extracts from the Journal of Eobert Juet, of Lijub- 
house, concerning the discovery op delaware 
Bay. From Purchas, His Pilgrimes, Part III, 
pp. 590-591. 

The eiglit and twentieth, faire and hot weather, the 
winde at South South-west. In the morning at sixe 
of the clocke wee weighed, and steered away North 

The Point twolvo loaguos till noone, and came to the Point of the 
Land ; and being hard by the Land in fiue fathomeSy 
on a sudden wee came into three fathomes ; then we 
beare up and had but ten foote water, and ioyned to- 
the Point. Then as soone as wee were ouer, we had 
fiue, sixe, seuen, eight, nine, ten, twelue, and thirteene 

Ba?and fathomcs. Thcu wee found the Land to trend away 
JSTorth-west, with a great Bay and Riuers. But the 
Bay wee found shoald ; and in the offing wee had ten 
fathomes, and had sight of Breaches and drie Sand. 
Then wee were forced to stand backe againe ; so wee 

A small stood backc South-east by South, three leagues. And 

ncedfuii at seuen of the clocke wee Anchored in eight'fathomes 
water: and found a Tide set to the North-west, and 
North North'West, and it riseth one fathome, and flow- 
eth South South-east. And hee that will throughly 
Discouer this great Bay, must haue a small Pinnasse, 
that must draw but foure or fiue foote water, to sound 
before him. At fiue in the morning wee weighed, 
and steered away to the Eastward on many courses, 
for the Norther Land is full of shoalds. Wee were 

The amons: them, and once wee strooke, and wee went 

Northern * ' ' 

of Bhoai's"" away ; and steered away to the South-east. So wee 



181 



liad two, three, foure, fine, sixe, and seuen fathomes, 
:and so deeper and deeper. 

The nine and twentieth, faire weather, with some 
Thunder and showers, the winde shifting betweene 
the South South-west, and the North North west. In 
the morning wee weighed at the breake of day, and 
•stood toward the Norther Land, which wee found to 
bee all Bands to our sight, and great stormes from ^^^L 
them, and are shoald three leagues ofi". For we 
•comming by them, had but seuen, sixe, fine, foure. They 
three, and two fathomes and a halfe, and strooke 
.ground with our Rudder, we steered off South-west, 
one Glasse, and had fine fathoms. Then we steered 
South-east three glasses, then we found seuen fath- 
omes, and steered North-east by East, foure leagues, 
and came to twelue and thirteen e fathomes. At one 
of the elocke, I went to the top-mast head, and set the 
Land, and the bodie of the Hands did beare North- 
west by North. And at foure of the elocke wee had 
gone foure Jeagues East South-east, and North-east by 
East, and found but seuen fathoms, and it was calme 
80 we Anchored. Then I went againe to the top- 
mast head^to see how farre I could see Land about 
vs, and could see no more but the Hands. And the 
souther point of them did beare North-west by West, 
eight leagues off. So wee rode till mid-night. Then 
the winde came to the North North-west, so wee 
waighed and set sayle. 



24 



182 



VII. 

Extracts Eelating to Hudson's Third Voyage, from 
John De Laet's Kieuwe Werelt. FoL, Amster- 
dam, 1625, 1630. From Book III, Chapter 7. 

The following passages are from the New York Historical Society's Collections, 
New Series, Vol. I, pp. 290, 291. 

As to the first discovery, the Directors of the privi- 
leged East India Company, in 1609, dispatched the 
yacht " Half Moon," under the command of Henry 
Hudson, captain and super-cargo, to seek a passage to 
China by the north-east. But he changed his course 
and stood over towards Kew France, and having 
passed the banks of iN'ewfoundland, in latitude 43° 
23', ^ he made the land in latitude 44° 15 ', ^ with a 
west-north-west and north-west course, and went on 
shore at a place where there were many of the natives, 
with whom, as he understood, the French came every 
year to trade. (Sailing hence, he bent his course to 
the south, until, running south-south-west and south- 
west by south, he again made land in latiti^^e 41° 43 ', 
which he supposed to be an island, and gave it the 
name of ISTew Holland,^ but afterwards discovered that 
it was Cape Cod, and that, according to his observa- 
tion, it lay two hundred and twenty-five miles to the 
west of its place on all the charts. Pursuing his 
course to the south, he again saw land in latitude 37° 
15 ' , the coast was low, running north and south, and 



' Near Cape Sable, Nova Scotia. 

2 On the coast of Maine. 

3 See Dr. Asher's note, p. 155, Hak. Soc. Pub., 18G0. 



183 



opposite to it lay a bank or shoal, witbiii which there 
was a depth of eight, nine, ten, eleven, seven and six 
and a half fathoms, with a sandy bottom. Hudson 
called this place Dry Cape.^ 

Changing his course to tho- northward, he again dis- 
covered land in latitude 38° 9 ', where there was a 
white sandy shore, and within appeared a thick grove 
of trees full of green foliage. The direction of the 
coast was north-north-east and south-south-west, for 
about twenty-four miles ; then north and south for 
twenty-one miles, and afterwards south-east and north- 
west for fifteen miles. They continued to run along 
this coast to the north, until they reached a point from 
which the land stretches to the west and north-west, 
where several rivers discharge into an open bay. 
Land was seen to the east-north-east, which Hudson 
at first took to be an island, but it proved to be the 
main land, and the second point of the ba}', in latitude 
38° 54 '? Standing in upon a course north-west by 
east, they soon found themselves embayed, and, en- 
countering many breakers, stood out again to the 
south-south-east. Hudson suspected that a large 
river discl^arged into the bay, from the strength of the 
current that set out and caused the accumulation of 
sands and shoals. 

Continuing their course along the shore to the north, 
they observed a white sandy beach and drowned land 
within, beyond which there appeared a grove of wood ; 



'Near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay ; the description of the coast 
corresponds to the vicinity of Cape Charles. 

* This was without doubt Cape May, now laid down in latitude 38° 
57'', varying only 3^ from observations of Hudson. The remainder of 
the description applies well enough to Delaware bay and river, now 
first discovered, as claimed by the Dutch. 



184 



the coast running north-east by east, and south-west 
by south. Afterwards the direction of the coast 
changed to north by east, and was higher land than 
they had yet seen. They at length reached a lofty 
promontory or head-land, behind which was situated 
a bay, which they entered and ran up into a road- 
stead near a low sandy point, in latitude 40° 18 ■'.^ 
There they were visited by two savages clothed in elk 
skins, who showed them every sign of friendship. On 
the land they found an abundance of blue plums, and 
magnificent oaks, of a height and thickness that one 
seldom beholds ; together with poplars, linden trees, 
and various other kinds of wood useful in ship- 
building. Sailing hence in a north-easterly direction, 
they ascended a river to nearly 43° north latitude,, 
where it became so narrow and of so little depth that 
they found it necessary to return.^ 

From all that they could learn, there had never been 
any ships nor Christians in that quarter before, and 
they were the first to discover the river and ascend it 
so far. Henry Hudson returned to Amsterdam with 
this report ; and in the following year, 1610, some 
merchants again sent a ship thither, that is to say, to 
the second river discovered, which was called Man- 
haiies, from the savage nation that dwelt at its mouth. 
And subsequently their High Mightinesses, the States 
General, granted to these merchants the exclusive 
privilege of navigating this river and trading there ; 



' This is about the latitude of Sandy Hook. The highlands- of New 
Jersey formed the lofty promontory referred to. 

2 The latitude of Albany is 42° 39''. It appears from Juet's Journal 
of the voyage, that Hudson sent his small boat several miles further 
up the river than his ship proceeded, and in this way he probably 
reached the latitude of Albany, described as nearly 43°. 



185 



whereupon, in tlie year 1615, a redoubt or fort was 
erected on the river, and occupied by a small garrison, 
of which we shall hereafter speak. Our countrymen 
have continued to make voyages thither from year to 
year, for the purpose of trafficking with the natives,, 
and on this account the country has very justly re- 
ceived the name of New-Netherland. 

YIII. 

" The Hudson Tract." 

Hessel Gerritz's Yarious Accounts op Hudson's Two> 
Last Voyages.* 

Prom the Latia and Dutch {editions of the Bescriptio et Delineatio Geographica: 
Detectionis Freti ab H. Hudsono Inveiiti. 4to, Amsterdam, 1612, 1613. 

The following accounts are all due to the same' 
hand ; they even form parts of the different editions 
of the same work ; and the natural supposition would 
therefore be, that they must be repetitions of each 
other. This is, indeed, in a small degree, the case.. 
Eut the variations between them are very great and' 
very curious; showing, as they do, the uncertainty of 
Gerritz's information, and how it was gradually cor- 
rected. It has, therefore, seemed advisable to reprint 
them all. 



1 Extracted from Hudson the Navigator, by Dr.. Asker. Hakluyt 
Society's Pub., 1860. 



186 



Hudson's Fourth Voyage, a Summary Printed on the 
Back of the Chart. — An Account of the Voyage and 
New Found Strait of Mr. Hudson. 

Mr. Hudson, who Las been repeatedly engaged in 
the search of a western passage, long mtended to un- 
dertake an expedition for this same purpose through 
Lumley's Inlet, a channel leading out of Davis's 
Strait ; as we ourselves have seen' pointed out on his 
map, which is in Mr. Plantius's hands. He hoped 
thus to reach the Pacific by the west of IS'ova Albion,^ 
where another Englishman had, according to his draw- 
ings, passed through. Hudson found after many 
labors the way represented on our map, and he was 
only prevented from following it further up by the 
resistance of his crew. This mutiny took place under 
the following circumstances. They had been absent 
from home about ten months, being provisioned only 
for eight, and during their whole voyage they had met 
but a single man, who brought them an animal which 
they ate ; but having been badly treated, the man 
never returned. Having thus left the latitude of 52° 
where they had wintered, and having sailed up to 60°, 
along the western shore of their bay, they fell in with 
a wide sea and with a great flood from the north-west. 
The commander intended to proceed further. The 
crew then arose against him, and put all the officers 
out of the ship into a boat, and sailed home to Eng- 



' Nova Albiott is a vague term embracing all the possessions of the 
English in North America. — Translator. 



187 



land. For this cause they have, on their arrival at 
home, all been put in prison ; and in the course of the 
present summer (1612), some ships have again been 
sent to those regions by order of the King and of the 
Prince of Wales,^ to discover a passage and to look for 
Mr. Hudson and his companions. These liave re- 
ceived orders that, in case the passage be found, two 
of them shall pass through it, the third shall bo sent 
home with the news, which we are expecting. 

II. 

Hudson's Third and Fourth Voyages. 

From the Prolegomena to the First Latin Edition. 

But as even after these voyages of William Barentz,^ 
the English had repeatedly tried that northern way, 
the Directors of the East India Company resolved 
three years ago to send there a certain Mr. Hudson, 
an Englishman. He having found no way to the east, 
but, instead of it, the ocean almost entirely obstructed 
by ice, went to the west, and returned without any 
profit to England. He was then sent out again by the 
English, and his voyage was far more prosperous, but 
his own fortune far worse. For, having after many 
labors passed beyond the Terra de Baccalaos^ for about 



1 Henry, Prince of Wales, a young man of great promise, who died 
in November, 1612. 

*The preceding passage of the Prolegomena, or preface to Ilessel 
■Gerritz's work, contains a short account of Barentz's voyages to the 
north-east in search of a short way to China. — Translator. 

3 Terra de Baccalaos, or cod-fish land, is a vague term, embracing 
most of the cod-fish stations north of 49°. On the old maps the name 
is generally written in latitude 55° or 56°. — Trans. 



188 



tliree hundred miles ^ to tlie west, and having wintered 
there in latitude 52°, and being sure to be able to go 
still farther; then, not only he himself, but all his 
officers, were put into a boat by their mutinous crew, 
and left to drift on the waves. The sailors returned 
home without delay. "We have added his geographi- 
cal observations to the present book. "We expect 
more certain news by the ships which have already 
been sent there ; and even the much desired report 
that they will have passed through the strait. These 
ships will thus obtain eternal fame and glory. * * * 

The news of Hudson's recently found passage to 
the north of Newfoundland, and the hope of a strait, 
is confirmed by the testimony of the Virginian and 
Floridan savages, who all state most distinctly that 
their country is washed on its south-western side by a 
vast ocean, in which they have seen ships similar to 
those of the English. 

III. 
Hudson's Third and Fourth Voyages. 

From the Latin Edition of 1612. 

An Account of the Discovery of the Norih-westeiTi Passage, 
which is expected to lead to China and Japan, by the 
North of the American Continent, found by Mr. H. Hud- 
son, an Englishman. 

The English nation, encouraged by previous success, 
have grown bolder and bolder in their naval enter- 
prise. Thus, besides their frequent voyages to the 



" Probably German miles. The other accounts have le^icas (leagues). 



189 



east, to ISTova Zembla and to Spitzbergen/ they have 
made almost uninterrupted efforts to discover a west- 
ern passage or strait to China and Japan. They 
expected that sailing by this road they would have on 
their left the IS'orth American shores, where they have 
founded their Virginian colony. 

Several of those who set out in search of that pas- 
sage entered Davis's Straits. Their example was fol- 
lowed by Captain George Winwood, ^ who sailed in 
1602 nearly five hundred English miles up that strait, 
but was then forced by the ice to return. He now 
attempted to find the desired passage by exploring the 
narrows under 61°, which the English call Lumley's 
Inlet. But having sailed a hundred leagues into 
them he again turned back, partly on account of the 
sufi'erings which the great length of the voyage pro- 
duced among his crew, partly because he desired to 
explore two more bays, situated between Lumley's 
Inlet and Baccalaos, whence the sea was streaming out 
with great might. These facts are stated in his log 
books, which Mr. Peter Plantius, a diligent investiga- 
tor of such matters, communicated to Mr. H. Hudson 
during his stay in Amsterdam in 1609, when Hudson 
was going to undertake a search for a passage to the 
north of JSTova Zembla for the Directors of the Dutch 
East India Company. He did set out, but achieved 
nothing in the east ; he sailed therefore straight 
westward, to attempt again the way searched out and 
drawn by Captain "Winwood ; which way, after passing 
for about a hundred leagues through a narrow chan- 
nel, leads out into a wide sea. Hudson hoped to find 



' Gerritz has Grocnlandiam. 

2 George Waymouth. The mistake is corrected in the later editions. 

25 



190 



a way through this sea, though Plantius had proved 
to him the impossibility of success from the accounts 
of a man who had reached the western shore of that 
sea. Hudson achieved, in 1609, nothing memorable, 
even by this new way. But he was again sent out in 
1610 by his own countrymen. lie now followed the 
way through Lumley's Inlet, pointed out to him by 
Winwood's papers. Having passed under many labours 
through the strait, he reached the latitude of 52°, 
where he Avintered. Here he fell in, for the first time 
during the voyage, with one of the natives of the 
country. This Indian brought some merchandise, and 
was armed with a Mexican or Japanese cris ;^ from 
which circumstances Hudson concluded that he was 
not far from Mexico. The native, however, not being 
well treated, never afterwards returned. The English 
thus lost this only chance of adding to their victuals, 
and being provided for eight months only, they left 
the harbour they had entered and sailed along the 
western shore of the bay till up to 62° or 63° north. 
Here they found a wide sea and more powerful tides 
from the north-west, which Hudson and the ofileers 
intended to examine further. But the crew, who had 
already been two months longer from home than their 
provisions had been intended for, rose against their 
commanders, and exposed Hudson and his friends in 
a boat in the open air. The crew then returned by 
the way they had come, and reached their home in 
September, 1611, where they were thrown into prison. 
They are going to be kept prisoners till their Captain 
will have been found. In search of him three ships 



' Thus the Mexicans call their flame-shaped poniards. (Gerriiz's 
notes). 



191 



have been sent out this summer (1612), bj the Prince 
ofWales and some merchants. They are to expk)re 
the passage throughout, and when they have found the 
open ocean, one of them is to retnrn with the desired 
news. This ship is daily expected home. 



II. 
Hudson's Third and Fourth Voyage. 

From the Second Latin Edition (1613). With notes indicating the variations of the 
Dutch Edition. 

A Description mid Chart of the Discovery of the Strait or 
Passage by the North of the American Continent to China 
and Japan. 

The English, stimulated by the happy success of 
their maritime enterprise, undergo without hesitation 
the troubles which these expeditions involve; and in 
spite of the laborious nature of their voyages to the 
east, to Moscovia, Nova Zembla, and Spitzbergen, 
they are still bent on new discoveries. They have 
chiefly made uninterrupted eiforts to find a passage in 
the west, where they have already occupied Virginia 
and peopled it with their colonists. This passage they 
have sought for between Greenland and New Francia. 
Their eftbrts have as yet been fruitless, and through 
ice and snow they have in vain fought their way up to 
70° or even 80° of north latitude. The strait which 
they have thus explored bears the name of its first 
discoverer, John Davis. The last navigator who went 
along that way was Captain George Waymouth, who 
sailed in the year 1602, and who, after a voyage of 
five hundred leagues, was, hke his predecessors, forced 



192 



by the ice to return. But on purpose to draw at least 
some advantage from his expedition, he directed his 
course to the bay under 61°, which the EngHsh call 
Lumley's Inlet, and sailed a hundred leagues in a 
south-westerly direction into it. Having gone so far, 
he found himself landlocked, and despairing of a pas- 
sage, he was, by the weakness of his crew and by 
other causes, forced to return. He, however, first 
explored two more bays between that country and 
Baccalaos, and found there the water wide and mighty 
like an open sea, with very great tides. 

This voyage, though far from fulfilling Waymouth's 
hopes, assisted Hudson very materially in finding his 
famous strait. George Waymouth's logbooks fell in- 
to the hands of the liev. Peter Plantius, who pays the 
most diligent attention to such new discoveries, chiefly 
when they may be of advantage to our own country ; 
and when in 1609, Hudson was preparing to undertake 
a voyage for the Directors of the East India Company, 
in search of a passage to China and Cathay hy the 
north of Nova Zembla, he obtained these logbooks 
from Peter Plantius. Out of them he learned this 
whole V03"age of George Waymouth, through the 
narrows north of Virginia, till into the great inland 
sea ; and thence he concluded that this road would 
lead him to India. But Peter Plantius refuted this 
latter opinion from the accounts of a man who had 
searched and explored the western shore of that sea, 
and had stated that it formed an unbroken line of 
coast. Hudson, in spite of this advice, sailed west- 
ward to try what chance of a passage might be left 
there, having first gone to Nova Zembla, where he 
found the sea entirely blocked up by ice and snow. 
He seems, however, according to the opinion of our 



193 



countrymen, purposely to have missed the right road 
to the western passage, unwilling to benefit Holland 
and the directors of the Dutch East India Company by 
such a discovery. All he did in the west in 1609, was 
to exchange his merchandise for furs in New France. 
He then returned safely to England, where he was 
accused of having undertaken a voyage to the detri- 
ment of his own country. Still anxious to discover a 
western passage, he again set out in 1610, and directed 
his course to Davis's strait. There he entered in lati- 
tude 61° the path pointed out b}' George "Waymouth, 
and explored all the shores laid down in the present 
chart,^ up to the height of 63°. He then sailed to the 
south, down to 54°,^ where he wintered. When he 
left his winter quarters he ran along the western shore 
for forty leagues, and fell in, under 60°, with a wide 
sea, agitated by mighty tides from the northwest. 
This circumstance inspired Hudson with great hope of 
finding a passage, and his ofiicers were quite ready to 
undertake a further search ; but the crew, weary of 
a long voyage, and unwilling to continue it, bethought 
themselves of the want of victuals, with which they 
had been provided for eight months only, and to which 
no additions had been made during the voyage, except 
one large animal which an Indian brought. This 
Indian was armed with a Mexican or Japonese cris 
(poniard), from which fact Hudson concluded that a 
place which possessed Mexican arms and productions 
could not be far distant from that country.^ At last 



^ffis Chart (Zyne Caerte), according to the Dutch edition; a lac 
simile is in Hak. Sec. Pub. for 1860. 

252 degrees (52 sic. graed), Dutch edition. 

3 Wherefrom it appears that the people of that country have some 
communication with those along the Pacific ocean. {Daer wt dattet 



194 



the ill will of the crew prevailed. They exposed HucC- 
son and the other officers in a boat on the open sea;^ 
and returned into their country. There they have 
been thrown into prison for their crime, and will be- 
kept there until their captain shall be safely brought 
home.^ For that purpose some ships have been sent 
out last year (1612) by the late Prince of Wales f and 
by the directors of the Moscovia company, about the' 
return of which nothing has as yet been heard. We- 
may therefore hope that they have passed beyond that 
strait, and we do not think that we shall hear anything; 
about them before they return to England from East 
India or China and Japan, by the same road by which 
they went out. This, we hope and pray, may come t& 
pass. Kor has the zeal of our fellow citizens of Ana- 
sterdam cooled down. They have some months ago 
sent out a ship to search for a passage or for Hudson's 
Strait, to try whether any convenient intercourse caa 



schijnt die natie daer te lande phemcenscJwp te hebben met die a en de Ziftj- 
der Zee.) Dutch edition. — Translator. 

• The Dutch edition, published several months before the Latin, has 
from this point an entirely different termination. "He is beimg 
searched for by the ships which have been sent out this summer by 
tlie merchants and by the Prince of Wales, who is said to assist them. 
These ships are not expected to return before they will have been hi 
Mare del Zur. We wish them good luck." [Die ghesocht wort van de 
scheepens die dese somer deriuaert gesonden zijn van de Coopluyden enSe 
van den Prince van Wallis die daer de hand aen hout, soo gheseyt wort^ 
Welcke scheepens men meent niet te sullen weder komen eer sy al heel sullen 
tot in Mar del Zur getveest hehhen, daer icy haer gheluck toe wenschen). 

* Henry, Prince of Wales, died in November, 1612, between the 
publication of the first and second editions of Hessel Gerritz. The 
ships sent out were commanded by Button, the discoverer of Button's 
Bay, a gentleman of Prince Henry's household. Button wintered in 
Hudson's Bay, and returned in autumn, 1618. — Translator. 



195 



he established with those places, or, if this should be 
found impossible, to trade od the coasts of New France.^ 



^ For an account of this expedition see O'Callaghan, History of New 
Wetherland, i, pp. 68, 69. — Translator. See also Henry Hudson in 
MaUand, pp. 31, 32. By Henry C. Murphy. 



INDEX. 



Adams, C, extracts from his book 
(1553), 22, 24 

Admiral, meaning of the word, 24. 

Albany, Hudson's arrival at, 163, 
184 

Alcock, T., Muscovy Company's 
Agent at ^loscow, 65 

Aldworth, (T.), of Bristol, corres- 
pondence with Sir F. Walsing- 
ham, 93, 'J4, 97 

America, discoveries in, 92, 93, 94, 
97 ; argument of Carlile con- 
cerning, 97, 101, 105 

Amsterdam, excitement about dis- 
coveries, 143, 190-195: con- 
tract with Hudson, 150 

Argal's discoveries (1610), 156n, 
16 4n. 

Arnall, Ludlow, one of Hudson's 
crew, 2d and 4th voyages, 136 

Asher, Dr. G. M., author of Hud- 
son the Navigator, 12, 133, 
134, 172 

Aston, W., citizen of London, 57 

Astrachan, English traders in, 55, 
56 

Astrology of Dr. Dee, 175 

Author's conclusions respecting 
Hudson, 7, 118. 



B. 



Baccalaos, meaning of, 188, 190 

Bancroft, George, on H. Hudson, 
167 

Barentson, Capt. W., voyage of, 
142, 143, 144; memoranda con- 
cerning, 153, 187 

Barnes, spelling of the name, 71. 



Barnes, Anne, to whom married, 
95, 96 

Barnes or Barne, Frederick, 82 

Barnes family arms, 82. 

Barnes, Sir George the elder, 28 ; 
consultation on north-west 
passage, 53 ; friend of C. Hud- 
son, 64 ; sketch of, 70, 71, 72 ; 
mayor of London, 73 ; oil 
portrait of, 74 ; eulogized, 75 ; 
his de.itli, 76; his funeral, 77 ; 
his wife, 77, 78 ; mention of 
daughter Anne, 95, 96 ; re- 
lationship with the Hudsons, 
77, 97 

Barnes, Sir George, 2d, 80, 81; 
sketch of, 79 ; descendants of, 
82 

Barnes, John, one who was with 
Hudson on his second voyage, 
64, 82 

Barnes, William, son of Sir George 
2d, 127 

Barneveldt, 0., course with the 
great trading companies, 145 

Baxter, T., one of crew, first voy- 
age, 13 

Bassendine, Capt. J., (1568), 59 

Bealc, Mr. (1583), 53 

Best, R., at Moscow (1555), 60 

Beuberry, J., one of crew, first 
voyage, 13 

Bird, John, adventurer with C. 
Hudson (1580), 91, 92 

Bonaventure ship, 26, 88 

Boty, Ivor, treatise by, 153 

Bourk, 11., Earl of Clanricade, 96 

Bowes, Sir J., ambassador to Russia 
(1583), 140, 

Bramlie, T., associated with C, 
Hudson (1578), 91 

Brazil voyages, 90, 91 



26 



198 



Bridewell, i)ictare of Sir G. 
Barnes, 73, 74, 7G 

Bristol, trade with America (1583), 
102 

Brodhead, J. E.., History of New 
York, on Hudson's voyages, 167 

Browne, Capt. R., (1568), 59 

Brunei, 0., voyage, (1580), 141 

Burgoii's Life of Gresham, 34 

Burrough or Burrow, Christoplier, 
Muscovy Company's servant, 
and a friend of C. Hudson, 
(1579-81), 19, 54, 90 

Burrough, Capt. Stephen, (1553), 
26, 59 ; in Muscovy Company's 
service, (1574-1580), 88, 89. 

Burrough or Burrow, William, 
letter to, 54; letter to Russian 
Emperor, (1570), 84-88; 
sketch of, 88; his map of 
Russia, 89 ; report to Mus- 
covy Company, 101, 123, 179 

Busse Island, 160 

Button, Capt. T., of the Muscovy 
Co., and adventurer to Vir- 
ginia, 127, 194 



Cabot, Sebastian, plan of search for 
N. East passage, 20-23; first 
Governor of Muscovy Co., 28 

Calendars (Extracts from) of Chan- 
cery Proceedings, in Reign. of 
Elizabeth, 29, 30, 66, 71 

Calendars of State Papers, 127 

Camden's derivation of Hudson in 
his Remaines, 20, 69 

Candish, R., a friend of I)r. Dee, 
51, 179 

Candisli, Thomas, 51, 179 

Cape Cod seen by Hudson, 161 

Cape May discovered, 183 

Cape Sable, 182 

Carlile, Alexander, 78, 92; sketch 
of, 96 n 

Carlile, Christopher, son in law 
of Sir F. Walsingham, 95 ; 
his /Jis-coursr on a voyage to 
America, 97-100 ; Plans of- 
fered with C. Hudson to the 
Muscovy Company for a voy- 
age, 101-105, 120 ; argument 
in 1583, 141 



Cathay, 141. See also China. 

CaushenBay. 104 

Cecil, Sir R., patent for exportation 
of cloth, 108; friend of Hak- 
luyt, 128 

Chamberlayne, R. , notice of, 79n ; 
member of Muscovy Company, 
183 

Chesapeake Bay, 156, 183. 

China or Cathay, north-west or 
northeast passage to, 5o, 142, 
163, 189, 192 

Clinton, Lord Edward, of Sem- 
pringham, friend of Henry 
Hudson the elder, 34 - 36 

Colines, William, mate, Hudson's 
first voyage, 13 

Commerce of Europe, 20-22 

Companies (commercial), of Lon- 
don, their names, 32n 

Cooke, J., sailor with Hudson, 
first voyage, 13; second voy- 
age, 136 

Corbett, R., owner of Leighton 
Bussard, 67 

Corney, Bolton, extracts from his 
Sir H. Middleton's voyage, 15, 
17, 18 

Cotes, T., extracts from his ac- 
count of a voyage, 104 

Coleman, J., sailor with Hudson, 
first and third voyages, 13, 
157 

Cumberland, George, Earl of, let- 
ter on the monopoly of expor- 
tation of cloth (1601), 108- 
111 



D. 

Dam, P. Van, historian of corpo- 
ration of Amsterdam, 150 ; 
preserves the contract with 
Hudson and the instructions, 
151 

Dartmouth, Eng., 164 

Davis, Capt. John, precursors of 
his voyages, 80 ; from Hud- 
son's journal on, 139; T. 
Hudson's intercourse with 
him, 154; mentioned by Dr. 
Dee, 178, 179; from Gerritz's 
tract concerning, 192 



199 



Davis Straits, of a northwest pas- 
sage through, 158, 164; ex- 
tract from Gerritz's tract con- 
cerning, 189, 190, 193 

Day, R., sailor with Hudson, first 
voyage, 13 

Dee, Dr. John, notice of his life, 
49, 52, 175; friendship witli 
the Hudsons, 119; extracts 
from his diary, 48, 50-52, 
93, 177-179; diary noticed, 
176 

Delaware Bay, discovered by Hud- 
son, 6 ; sources of information 
concerning the discovery, 11, 
44 ; narrative of the discovery, 
161-163, 167, 180-183 

Delaware, discovered before New 
York, 6, 7 

Delaware river, canal uniting its 
waters with Hudson river, 168 

De Laet, extracts from his book 
respecting Hudson's discover- 
ies, 163. 164, 182 

Denmark's tribute from the Mus- 
covy Company, 99 

Devereaux, R.. relative of G. 
Barnes and Sir F. Walsingham, 
96 

De Whale, John, at St. Nicholas, 
(1579), 40 

Digges, Sir D., furtherer of Hud- 
son's voyages, 14, 51, 125, 
127 

Digges, Thomas, father of Sir D. 
Digges, 51 

Discovery voyages. See America ; 
N. K. passage ; N. W. passage. 

Dixwell, Basil, son of Charles, 44, 
45 

Dixwell, Charles, married Abigail 
Hudson, daughter of Henry 
the elder, 44, 46 

Dixwell, Mark, once possessor of 
the Hudson estates, 4() 

Donck. See Van der Doiick, \. 

Drake, Sir Francis, C. Carlile, his 
second officer (1585), 104 ; 
friend of Hakluyt, 128; men- 
tioned by Dr. Dee, 178 

Dry Cape, 183 

Dutch East India Company, Hud- 
son's services to. 14 ; alarm at 
his discoveries, 139; measures 



Dutch East India Co. (continued): 
adopted, 142 ; its contract with 
Hudson, 145-148, 172; outbid 
the French, 149, 150 ; its com- 
pensation to Hudson, 151, 152 ; 
Hondius and Plantius interme- 
diaries, 154, 155: Hudson's let- 
ters to the company lost, 157 ; 
fourth voyage proposed. 165; 
extractsfrom Gerritz's Hudson 
tract concerning its schemes, 
187, 190-193 

Dutch trade, in Russia, 98, 140, 
141 ; extension of, 144 ; in 
cloth, 112 - 113; rivalry in 
trade with the English, 130; 
companies for trade, 142; ex- 
tracts from De Laet on, 184 



E. 



East India Compan3^ Sec Dutch ; 
Englisli. 

East India trade, Dutch eagerness 
to secure a share, 144 

East India voyages, Corney's ac- 
count of mutilations of the 
records, 15 

Edge's Captain, Tract, "Briefe 
discoverie," 12 ; testimony 
on Dutch trade with Russia, 
140 

Edward Bonaventure sliip, enters 
White sea (1553), 26, 88 

Edwards, A., a factor of Muscovy 
Company (1579), 54; men- 
tioned in Killingworth's letter, 
60 

Elizabeth, Queen, accompanied by 
Dr. Dee (1579), 52 ; letters 
patent granted for discovery 
(1578), 92 ; entertained by 
Sir F. Walsingham (1589), 
96 ; R. Hakluyt's services to 
the Queen, 174; Dr. Dee's 
intercourse with the Queen, 
176, 177 

Elkin, AV., associate with C. Hudson 
for voyage to Brazil, 91. 

EUesmere, Lord, letters to, 105, 
la, 117 

Emery, an evil adviser of J. Davis, 
178 



200 



English East India Company sends 
Hudson on his 4th voyage, 129 ; 
alliance with the Muscovy 
Company, 130, 131 ; followed 
by the incorporation of Dutch 
E. I. Co., in 1602, 145; Way- 
mouth in its employ, 155 ; 
grand festival of, in 1609, 166 

English trade reviving, 21 ; stimu- 
lated by Cabot's schemes, 23 ; 
trade with Russia, 85, 86. — 
See Muscovy Company ; Dutch 
trade. 



Faroe Is., visited by Hudson on 

3d voyage, 160 
Fellowship of English merchants, 

28 
Ferrers, G., Lord of disports, and 

Sir G. Barnes ^553), 72 
Finch, John, remark on C. and W. 

Hudson, 42 n 
Fotherby, Capt., had seen Hudson's 

journal, 13 
French East India Company, pro- 
posed formation, 149 
French iishermen encountered by 

Hudson, 160 
French trade, increase of, 149, 

182 
Friesland, called Galindia, 177 



G. 



Garrard, A., associates with C. Hud 
son for a voyage, 91 

Garrard, Sir Wm., Governor of 
the JNluscovy Company, 83, 
85, 86. — See also Gerrard, or 
Garrett, W., a first consul of 
the Muscovy Company, 28 

Gates, Sir T., adventurer to Vir- 
ginia, 126 

Gerard, P., agent of Muscovy 
Company (1579), 54 

Gerrard, W., portrait in a picture 
by Holbein, 74 ; at tlie funeral 
of Lady Barnes, 79 ; daughter 
married to Sir G. Barnes 2d, 
81, 179— See also Garrard AV. 



Gerrard, T., interested in Muscovy 

Company and Virginia, 127 
Gerritz (Hessel), extracts from 
his tracts on Hudson's 3d 
and 4th voyages, 185-195 
Gilbert, Adrian, mentioned in 
Dee's Diary, 51,52,53, 178,179 
Gilbert, Sir H., associates with Dr. 
Dee, 51 ; petitions the Queen 
for letters patent for discov- 
eries, 92, 95 ; recommended 
in a letter by Sir F. AValsing- 
ham, 92, 93 ; Carlile's argu- 
ment in favor of Gilbert's voy- 
age, 99 ; departure of his 
fleet (1583), 104 ; C. Hudson's 
interest in his scheme, 105 ; 
of H. Gilby's being the same 
name, 136, 137 ; his enter- 
prise a rival one to the Dutch, 
141; notices of him in Dee's 
Diary, 177, 178 
Gilbert, Sir J., friend of Dr. Dee, 

51, 93, 178 
Gilbert, Ralegh, Virginian adven- 
turer, 126 
Gilby, Humphry, of its being the 

same as H. Gilbert, 136 
Glover, S., letter of Muscovy Com- 
pany to him and C. Hudson 
(1560), 62, 63-65 
Gosnold, B., Virginian adventurer 
(1604) with Capt. Smith, 126 ; 
named Cape Cod (1602), 161 ; 
his voyages studied by Hud- 
son, 155 
Graie, R., bearer of letter to Em- 
peror of Russia (1555), 27 
Gray, M., servant of Muscovy Co. 

in Russia, 60 
Green, H., sailor of Hudson, to be 

of the Prince's Guard, 126 
Greenland, 189 ; north-west pas- 
sage by, 191 
Grenville, R., petitions the Queen 
for letters patent of discove- 
ries, 92, 95 
Greshani, Sir J., the elder, sherifi", 

33, 37 
Gresham, Sir J., the younger, as- 
sistant in the Muscovy Co., 
29 ; sketch of, 37 
Gresham, Sir T., Burgon's life of, 
33,^34, 54 



201 



Grigs, T., purser on voyage to 

Brazil (1580), 91 
Grotius, H., connection with the 

establishment of the Dutch E. 

I. Company, 145 
Guinea Company, 129 



H. 

Haie, E., forsakes Gilbert's expe- 
dition, 104 

Hakluyt, Kichard, source of much 
of Purchas's knowledge, 15 ; 
depositary of the records of 
contemporary voyages, 16 ; 
does not mention Hudson the 
navigator, 18 ; preserved Dee's 
addresses to Pet, 49 ; friend 
of Dr. Dee, 51 ; his varied 
ways of spelling Hudson, 65 ; 
Walsingham and Aldworth 
mention him in Gilbert's en- 
terprise, 94, 95 ; friend of 
Capt. J. Smith, 120 ; friend of 
the Hudsons and of Hudson 
the navigator, 128 ; sketch of 
life, 173 ; visits Dr. Dee, 177 

Half Moon, ship, at Sandy Hook, 
Sept. 3, 1609, 7 ; leaves Am- 
stei-dam, Ap. 4, 156 ; Coleman 
on board, 157 ; strikes the 
sands in Delaware Bay, 162 
and note ; reaches Amsterdam 
(1610), 166; lost, 166; ex- 
tracts from De Laet's work, 
182 

Halliwell, J. 0., editor of Dr. Dee's 
diary, 176 

Hautory, T., an agent of the 
Muscovy company, 60 

Hawkins, Sir Richard, navigator, 
visits Dr. Dee, 178 

Hearse, described (1555) 38 

Heemskirk, J. Van, exertion in 
Arctic navigation, 144 

Hendor, Capt., explanation to Dr. 
Dee, 179 

Hendrik, employed instead of 
Henry in Hudson's name, 150 

Henry, Prince of Wales, favors H. 
Hudson, 126; sends ships to 
look for Hudson, 187, 194 ; 
death of, 194 



Herdson, same name as Hudson, 
19, 28, 29 

Herdson, Henry, named in Charier 
of 1555, 28 

Hey ward. Sir Rowland, of London, 
receives Horsey, 80 

Hilles, T., sailor with Hudson, who 
saw the mermaid, 138 

Hitchin, Herts., an estate of H. 
Hudson, the elder, 33 

Hodderde, same name as Hudson, 67 

Hoddesden, Hoddesdon, lloddes- 
donn. same name as Hudson, 
67, 71 

Hoddesden, name used for Chris- 
topher Hudson, 106, 116, 117 

Hoddesdon town, origin of the 
Hudsons, 69 

Hoddesdon, Ex., Sheriff of Bed- 
fordshire, 71 

Hodgeson, Henry. See Hogeson, 
Henry 

Hodson, Hodsdon, Hodgson, Hodge 
&c., &c., same names as Hud- 
son, 19, 20 

Hogeson, Henry, the same person 
as one named Henry Hudson, 
and one named Henry Hodge- 
son, 57, 58, 

Holbein, Hans, painter of picture 
relating to Bridewell, and Sir 
G. Barnes, 73, 74. 

Hondins, Jodocus, map-maker, 
153; advispr and interpreter 
of iludsoii. 154; engraver, 172 

Hopewell ship, Capt. Hudson, 
1607,18 

Horsey, Sir Jerome, his Russian 
travels referred to, 62, 68 ; his 
friendship with Barnes ind 
Walsingiiam, 80 ; sketch of hia 
life. 80; illustrates character 
of the servants of the Muscovy 
Company, 121 

Houtman, navigator, doubles Cape 
of Good Hope 1597, 144 

Howard, Lord Admiral, friend of 
Hudson, 128; Hakluyfs let- 
ter to him on navigation, 173 

Hudson, various modes of spelling 
the name, 18, 19; twenty-one 
forms of the name, 30 

Hudson families, pedigrees in 
Sims, 70 



202 



Hudson family of London, 69 
Hudson family of Sussex, 41 
Hudson, Barbara, wife of H. Hud- 
son the elder, 45 ; in 1508 wid- 
ow of Sir R. Champion, 66 
Hudson, Sir Christopher, senior, 66 
Hudson, Christopher, Agent of the 
Muscovy Company (1560), 19, 
20; first mention of, OOi; in 
1554 came from Dantzic, 01 ; 
in 1559 was at Voloo:da, 62 ; 
letter to him from Muscovy 
Company, 62, 65 ; probably 
son of Sir Christopher Hudson, 
66 ; varied spelling of the 
name, 66-68, 84, 88, 117; 
intimacy with Sir George 
Barnes, 71 ; voyage to the 
Nai've in 1569, 83 ; agent of 
the Muscovy Company, 83 ; 
his fighting merchant fleet, 
84; his letter to the Emperor 
of Russia, 84, 85, 122; living 
in England in 1580-90 ; asso- 
ciates for a voyage to Brazil, 
91 ; relationship with the 
Barnes family, 97 ; his active 
zeal for Gilbert's voyage, 105, 
136 ; Governor of the mer- 
chant adventurers, 106, 107, 
128; his letter of 1601 to 
Lord Ellesmere on the monop- 
olies in trade, 1 11-110 ; period 
of his death, 117; resided in 
London, 119; tr.iined up as 
servant of the Muscovy Com- 
pany, 121 ; of his bringing 
Henry Hudson to the notice 
of the Dutch, 132 
Hudson, Christopher, a son of 
William Hudson, living in 
1635, 40, 47 
Hudson, Edmund or Edward, son 
of H. Hudson, the elder, 45, 
46, 47 
Hudson, Henry, of Stourton, Lin- 
colnsliiro, pr(>l)iibly of Hud- 
son's family, 34 
Hudson, Uenry, the elder, a found- 
er of the Muscovy Company 
in 1555, 18 ; his name also 
spelled Herdson, 19, 20; as 
found in the Charter of the 
Company, 28, 29 ; member of 



Hudson, Henry, (continued): the 
Company of Skinners, 31, 
32 ; Alderman of London, 33 ; 
was he of Stourton? 34; es- 
tates purchased by him from 
Lord Clinton, 36, 37 ; died at 
London (1555), 37; account 
of his funeral, 38 ; his widow 
and his monument, family 
arms, 40, 41 ; his character, 
43 ; was ancestor of H. Hud- 
son, navigator, 44; tlie names 
of his sons and daughter, 45; 
information concerning them, 
45-47, 57; relationship to 
him of the several Christo- 
pher Hudsons, 66, 68, 70 ; 
conclusion of the author that 
H. Hudson tiie navigator was 
his grandson, 118 ; his resi- 
dence in London with others 
of the family, 119; his son 
John and relatives, 127 
Hudson, Henry of Hitchiu, Hert- 
fordshire, 33 
Hudson, Henry, son of the elder 
Henry, citizen of London 
(1559), 57, 58 
Hudson, Henry, the navigatoi, 
object of this discourse con- 
cerning him, 6, 7, 11 ; pre- 
vious ignorance of his early 
life 8, 9, 10, 123, 124; of 
the discoveries of the author 
11 ; works treating of Hud- 
sou, 12 ; compilations made 
of his journals, 17 ; inves- 
tigations of his ancestry, 
44; his relatives. Sir G. 
Barnes and others, 81 ; his 
contemporaries, 81 ; au- 
thor's conclusion that Hud- 
son was probably a grand- 
son of Henry Hudson the 
elder, 118; was citizen of 
London, 119; his training 
in the employ of the Mus- 
covy Company, 120, 123; his 
first two voyages were for 
the Company, 125; his 
interest at court, 125, 126; 
his friends and acquaint- 
ances, 126, 127 ; Hakluyt 
one of his friends, 128 : his 



203 



Hudson, H. (cont.) : relations with 
Christopher Hudson, lliS, 
13li ; his death. IGT ; no pu/- 
trait known, 17'I ; his de- 
scendants, appendix, 171, 
172, 173 

His theory of an open 

polar sea, 9 ; his name ap- 
plied to great discoveries, 
9, 189, 190; influence of 
Davis's explorations upon 
him, 53 

His first voyage 1C07, 13 ; 

ship and crew, 13 ; Capt. in 
service of the Muscovy Com- 
pany, 9, 14 ; sketch of first 
voyage and discoveries, 133, 
134 : has been regarded as 
earliest information of his 
career, 134, 135 

His second voyage, 1608, 

14 ; names of some of his 
comjjanions, 136; in June 
near Nova Zembla, 137; a 
mermaid seen, 137 ; at- 
tempts for a north-east pas- 
sage, 138 ; purposed next 
voyage to try for a north- 
west passage, 138 

His third voyage, called 

into the service of the 
Dutch, 14, 139, 140; the 
feeling created in Holland 
by his second voyage, 146; 
his motives for entering the 
Dutch Company's service, 
147 ; intercourse with IMan 
tius, 148; attempts of the 
Frencli to secure his servi- 
ces through Le M;iire. 149 ; 
his contract with the Dutch 
Company, 150 ; object and 
route described in the con- 
tract, 151 ; his compensa- 
tion, 151 ; his memorandum 
on documents loaned him 
by Plantius, 153 ; iutei-- 
course with Hondius, 154 ; 
collation of Smith's maps 
and Waymouths log-books, 
155 ; departure from Am- 
sterdam in the Half Moon, 
156 ; loss of journals of the 
voyage, 157. 



Hudson, H. (continued): the route 
pursued, 1157, 58; determi- 
nation to change for a north- 
west route to the Indies, 
159, 160; steers S. W, to 
the Grand Banks, 160; to 
Penobscot Bay, 160; by 
Cape Cod to James llivei', 
161 ; dijicovers Delaware 
Bay, 161 ; navigation in tlie 
Bay, 162, 163 ; anchors at 
Sandy Hook, 163 ; arrival 
at Dartmouth, England, 164, 
165 ; Hudson and crew not 
allowed to leave England 
for Holland, 165, 166 ; De 
Laet's account, 182-185; 
Gerritz's account, 185-195 

His fourth voyage, at 

English expense, 14, 167 : 
object was a northwest pas- 
sage, 167 ; his death from 
desertion by a mutinous 
crew, 14, 167; cooperation 
in the voyage, of Muscovy 
and E. I. Companies, 129 ; 
Gerritz's account, 186-195 
Hudson, James, agent of James I, 

68 
Hudson, John, son of Hudson the 
elder, and brother of Thomas, 
45, 145; his estates fall to M. 
Dixwell, 46, 47 ; owner of 
lands in Kent, 70 
Hudson, John, member of the JIus- 
covy and Virginia Companies, 
127 ; perhaps the same as the 
preceding, 127 
Hudson, John, sailor on Hudson's 
first voyage, 13; also on se- 
cond voyage, 136 ; son of Hud- 
son the navigator, 151, 171, 
172 
Hudson. Rudolph, died at London 
(1530), relative perhaps of H. 
Hudson the elder, 38 
Hudson, Thomas, intimate with 
Dr. Dee, 49; pecuniary trans- 
actions with Dr. Dee, 50; asso- 
ciates with the great men of 
the time, 51 ; consults with 
Davis about the N. \V. voyage, 
53, 154 ; son of Henry Hudson 
the elder, 44, 45; conveys 



204 



Hudson, Thomas, (continued): lands 
to John Hudson, 47, 48 ; of 
Mortlake for a time, 48, 52 ; 
his nativity calculated, 49 ; 
his interest in the Muscovy 
Company, 51 ; relations with 
Capt. T. Hudson, 119 

Hudson, Thomas, Captain in the 
Muscovy Company's service 
(1580) 19, 20; of Limehouse, 
19 ; Burrough's report of a 
voyage of Hudson to Russia, 
(1581), 54-57 ; wintered in 
Astrachan, 56 ; object of his 
voyage a N. E. passage and 
trade in Russia, 59 ; not the 
same as the friend of Dr. Dee, 
57 ; relations with T. Hudson 
above, 119; influence tlirough 
the Company on H. Hudson, 
123, 124 

Hudson, William, in the service of 
Henry VIII in (1520), 38 n ; 
AVilliam H., son of Edmund, 
party in a suit, 46 ; is he the 
same as W. Hudson author ? 
46 n, 47 n 

Hudson, William, author of Trea- 
tise on the Court of Star Cham- 
ber, 46, 47n 

Hudson's Bay Company, 9 

Hudson's River, 10; Hudson's en- 
trance of it in (1609), 163, 186 
-195 

Hudson's strait, visited by G. 
Waymouth, 155 ; visited be- 
fore Hudson, 164 ; voyages 
to, (1612), 195 

Hudson tract, quoted, 126 ; re- 
printed extracts from the 
several editions of HessclGer- 
ritz of 1612 and 13, 16, and 
in appendix, 185-195 



Investigations, results of former, 

9 
Ireland, proposed wintering in, 

164 
Irving W., Knickerbocker's liis- 

tory, 172 



Jackman, Charles, voyage for N. 
E. passage, (1580), 49, 50, 89, 
123 

James river, approached by Hud- 
son (1609), 161 

Japan, See China; North E. 
passage. 

Jeannin, Pres., Ambassador of 
Henry IV of France in Hol- 
land, 139, 149 

Jenkinson, A., letter referring to C. 
Hudson (1559), 61, 62 

Johnson R., servant of the Mus- 
covy Company (1555), 60 

Jones, Winter, extracts from his 
" Hakluyt's voyages," 16, 190 

Judde, Sir A., member of the Mus- 
covy Company, 29 

Judde, R., servant of the Muscovy 
Company, (1555), 60 

Juet, Robert, sailed with Hudson 
the 2d, 3d and 4th voyages, 
136 ; Captain's clerk on 3d 
voyage, 156; extracts from 
hisjournal, 162, 164, 180, 182 



K. 



Kelly, E., apothecary, associate 

of Dr. Dee, 176 
Kent County, Hudson families, 45 ; 

customs of descent, 48 
Killingworth, G., acting for the 

jNluscovy Company, 27 ; speaks 

of Chr. Hudson (1555), 60, 61 
Knight, J., sailor, Hudson's first 

voyage, 13 



L. 



Lane, H., in the employ of the 

Muscovy Company (1555), 60, 

61 
Lee, Mr., from Russia, 179 
Leighton Bussard estate, 66, 68, 

70, 77 
Le Maire, Isaac, seeks Hudson's 

services for France, 149 
Limehouse, place of residence of 

T. Hudson, 19, 59, 119 



205 



Linsclioten, J. H. Van, commercial 

agent with Barentson (1594), 

143 
Lodge's Illustrations, extracts 

from, 35 
London Trades Companies' names, 

32 
London fever (1555), 37 
Lower's derivation of the name of 

Hudson, -M 
Lumley's Inlet, 180, 189, 190, 192 



M. 



Machyn, II., his diary, 1550 to 
1563, quoted, 30, 32, 33; his 
account of the elder Hudson's 
funeral, 38; sketch of him, 
39 ; lately published, 40 ; his 
remarks on Sir G. Barnes, 77 ; 
on Lady Barnes, 78 ; his re- 
marks on R. Chamberlayne, 79 

Maine, visited by Hudson (160'J), 
160 

Manhattes, 184 

Mary, Queen, Charter to the Mer- 
chant Adventurers (1555), 27, 
28, 31 ; Dr. Dee accused of 
practising against her life, 
175 

Maynard, J., portrayed in a pic- 
ture of Holbein, 74 

Mercer's Company, notices of its 
history and meaning, 106 

Merchant Adventurers Co., arose 
1358, 106 ; its monopoly of 
foreign commerce, 107—111 ; 
defence of its priviliges by C. 
Hudson. 112-116; number of j 
its members 128, 129; its trade 
with the Dutch, 132 

Merchant Adventurers, a name ofj 
the Muscovy Co., 21 ; recog- 
nized in 1553, 24; chartered j 
in 1555, 27 ; See muscovy Co. 

Merchant nobles, 35 

Mermaid described, seen by Hud- 
son, 137 

Mrerick, John, of the Virginia and 
jMuscovy Companies, 127 

Meteren, E. Van, Consul at Lon- 
don, 120; his relations with 
Hudson, 147 ; his account of 
the 3d voyage, 157; the au- 

27 



Meteren, E. V. (continued): thority 
for Hudson's directing his 
course to the setting sun, 
160; his report of the return 
on the 3d voyage, 164 

Mexican poniard, 190, 194 

Micalovich, Theod., gov. of Astra- 
chan, 55 

Middleton, Sir H., East India voy- 
age, 15 

Milton's Muscovia refers to B. 
Chancelor, 26 

Minion ship, 91 

Monson's, Sir AV., " Naval tracts," 
127 

Morgan, Miles, died under Sir H. 
Gilbert, 92 

Morocco Company, 129 

Mortlake, Surrey, residence of T. 
Hudson and Dr. Dec, de- 
scribed, 48, 119 

Moucheron, B. De. , devised Barent- 
son's voyage, 142, 143 

Murphy, H. C, on Hudson's Polar 
sea, 9; his " H. Hudson in 
Holland," 12 ; earliest infor- 
mation of Hudson, 134; opi- 
nion of Van Der Donck, 135: 
discovery of Hudson's con- 
tract, 150 

Muscovy Company, Hudson's ser- 
vice in, 9; first mention of 
Hudson by Purchas, 12, 13 ; 
C. and T. Hudson connected 
with it, 19 ; Hakluyt's chain of 
coincidences regartling the 
Hudsons, and the Company, 
18 ; known also as the Mer- 
chant Adventurers, 21, 28; 
Cliancoior and Willoughby's 
expedition for, 20; first char- 
ter for, 27, -8 ; names of first 
directors, 29; H. Hudson 
senior, one of them, 31, 43; 
many of the nobility in it, 35 ; 
Dr. Dee's zeal for it, 49; its 
Kussian agents in (1579), 54, 
55 ; expedition to Persia, 54— 
56; the company's chief ob- 
ject, a short northern passage 
to India, 58, 124; interior 
trade with Asia, 59 ; letter to 
their Kussian agents (1500), 
62-05 ; four consuls of, 29, 



206 



Muscovy Company (continued): 
72, 81 ; the two G. Barnes 
members of it, 79 ; factories 
in Russia, 80, 83 ; C. Hudson's 
warlike voyage, 83, 84 ; its 
members interested in the 
Virginia Company, 82, 127 ; 
C. Hudson's and C. Carlile's 
eiforts to interest the Company 
in America, 97, 105 ; Carlile 
on the uncertainty of their 
Russian trade, 98, 99 ; its 
Committee on his arguments, 
101 ; their report to the Com- 
pany (1583), 101, 102 ; was 
the source of success to C. 
Hudson, 117 ; author's conclu- 
sion that Henry Hudson was 
trained in its employ, 118, 
119, 120, 124; traits of its 
employes, 120,121, 122; its 
instructions to Captains, 122, 
123 ; its members in all the 
principal sea ports, 129; its 
connection with East I. Com- 
pany, 129, 180, 131 ; Hudson's 
two first voyages for it, 133, 
135 ; rivalry of the Dutch 
with it, 98-100, 141 ; ships 
sent by it to discover Hudson 
(1611), 194. See Merchant 
Adventurers. 



New York, discovered after Dela- 
ware, 7, 9, 163, 168 

Nobles in trade, 35 

North-East passage to India, Pet 
and Jackman's voyage, 50 ; 
was object of Muscovy Com- 
pany, 58 ; Hudson's darling 
object, 124 ; Hudson's 2d voy- 
age with that end, 136; Dutch 
interested in same object, 141, 
142; Hudson's undertaking of 
it for them, 152; and failure, 
158, 159, 163 ; search for it, 182 

North-West passage to India, Ca- 
bot's search (1498), 21-24; 
Davis's consultation, 53, 80 ; 
Hudson's faith in it, 14, 124 ; 
charter to a company for dis- 
covery of (1G12), 129; Capt. 
Smith's belief, 155; Hudson's 
third voyage diverted from 
trying it, 159, 164 ; Gei'ritz's 
account of Hudson's voyages 
for this end, 186, 188, 189, 195 

Nova Albion, 186 

Nova Zembla, Hudson's discoveries 
in, 14, 137, 138 ; Barentson's 
voyage around it, 144 ; Hud- 
son to sail around it on 3d 
voyage, 151 ; his obstacles, 
157, 158; Gerritz's tract on that 
voyage, 189, 190, 193 



N. 

Nai, Capt. Cornells, with Barent- 

son, 143 
Names of Hudson, spelling of, 20, 
31, 65, 67 ; names in Muscovy 
Company, 29 ; names of Hud- 
son's crews, 13, 136 
Narrows of Waymouth, 156, 193 
Narve in Russia, 83, 85, 122 
Newfoundland, arguments for Gil- 
bert's voyage to, 99 ; occupied 
by Gilbert, 104; Hudson on 
the banks of, 160, 188 
New France, 191, 193, 195 
New Netherland, 185 ; discovered 
by Hudson, 14, 184. See also 
New York. 
New World. See America. 



0. 



of 



O'Callaghan, E. B., account 
Hudson's voyages, 167 

Oddo, Danish chief, origin of 
name of Hudson, 69 

Oxenden, Sir H., proprietor of J. 
Hudson's estates, 46 



Panar island, 165 

Peckham, Sir G., friend of Dee 
and T. Hudson, 51, 178 ; pe- 
titioner with Sir H.Gilbert for 
a discovei-y grant, 92, 95, 104 

Penobscot Bav entered (1609) by 
Hudson, 160 



207 



Pet, Capt. A., for Muscovy Com- 
pany on a N. E. voyage, 49, 
50, 59; BuiTough's instruc- 
tions to him (1580), 89 ; train- 
ed by Muscovy Company, 123 ; 
interested in Virginia Compa- 
ny, 127 

Petchorii river, 141 

Plantius or Plancius, Rev. Peter, 
the Hakluyt of the Nether- 
lands, 148 ; interviews with 
Hudson, 148, 154 ; sketch of 
his life, 152, 153 ; furnishes 
papers to Hudson, 153, 155; 
his views and Waymouth's, 
155, 156; mentioned by Ger- 
ritz, 186, 190. ]92. 

Playse or Pleyce, John, sailor, 
Hudson's first voyage, 13, 171 

Polar sea, thought to be open by 
Hudson, 9, 189, 190 

Prickett, A., Hudson mentioned in 
his "Discourse," 119, 126. 

Prise. C, agent of Muscovy Com- 
pany in Russia, 60 

Purclias, Rev. Samuel, Ilis Pil- 
grimes contains account of 
Hudson's four voyages, 7 ; 
formerly chief source of infor- 
mation on Hudson, 12 ; ab- 
sence of notices from him of 
Hudson's eai'ly history, 14, 
15 ; occasion of his many omis- 
sions, 15—17; his knowledge 
of Hudson derived from Hak- 
luyt, 15, 128 ; sketch of Pur- 
chas's life, 174 



R. 



Radforth, Mr. (1588), 179 
Ralegh, Sir Walter, spelling of the 

name, 30, 31 ; visitor with T. 

Hudson at Dr. Dee's, 51, 179; 

Hakluyt an assignee of his 

patent, 174 
Raynor, R., sailor, who saw the 

mermaid, 138 
Read, W., of the Dixwell family, 

44, 46 
Reynolds, visitor at Dr. Dee's, 177 
Ridley, Bishop, eulogy on Sir G. 

Barnes, 75 



Rivers, Sir J., married a Barnes, 

78 
Roger, same derivation as Hud- 
son, 20 
Rogers, D., visitor at Dr. Dee's, 177 
Rundall's voyages, 24 
Russian Company, see Muscovy 

Company 
Russian Emperor's charter, 27 ; C. 

Hudson's letter to, 85 - 88 ; 

gifts of Muscovy Company to 

the Emperor, 98 
Russian trade and merchants, 121, 

122, 141, 144. See Muscovy 

Company. 



S. 



Sailors' names on Hudson's voy- 
ages, 13, 136 

Sainsbury's, (W. N.) date of a 
Report of iNIuscovy Co., cor- 
rected, 101, 103 

Saint Dunstan's Church, 43 

Salterne, W., merchant, London 
(1583), 94 

Sandy Hook, entered by Hudson, 
7, 163, 184 

Segewicke, John, agent of the 
Muscovy Company, 60 

Servants, meaning of, 54 

Shakespeare, W., our ignorance of 
his eaidy life, 8 

Sidney, Sir P., wife, a descendant 
of Sir G. Barnes, 96 ; friend 
of Hakluyt, 128 

Sims, R., of the Hudsons of Leigh- 
ton Bussard, 68, 70 

Skinners' or Tanners' Company, 
32 

Skrutton, J., see Strutton. .T. 

Smith, Capt. John, his acquaint- 
ance with Hudson and others, 
126 ; sends Hudson maps and 
letters, 155 ; influenced Hud- 
son's route, 158 ; not visited 
by Hudson in 1609, 161 

Smith, Sir Thomas, Gov. of Mus- 
covy Company, 125; Presi- 
dent of the Virginia Company, 
127, 131; Governor of East 
India Company, 129, 131 ; re- 
ceives (16(39) a gift from the 
King, 166 



208 



Smyth, Sir Hugh, vis^its Dr. Dee, 
178 

Snarke, Haunce, freebooter in the 
Arctic ocean, 8(1 

Society for the discovery of un- 
known lands, 27 

Somers, Sir G., friend of Capt. 
Smith, 126 

Somers Island Company, 131 

Spanish trade. 21-23 

Spitzbei-gen, date of Hudson's 
first voyage there, 12, 13 ; 
incidents of it, 133; observa- 
tions at Spitzbergen, 134; 
mention in Gerritz's tracts, 
189, 191 

Stafford, Sir E., his patent for 
cloth exportation, 108; R., 
Hakluyt his chaplain, 174 

Staper, R., merchant and alderman, 
London 1608, 90, 127 

Steevens, G., of our ignorance of 
Shakespeare, 8 

Stere, W., translates Boty's treat- 
ise, 153 

Steventon, T., merchant, (1583), 
94 

Stoade, trade at, 113, 114 

Stow's London on H. Hudson 
senior's monument, 41 ; on 
Sir G. Barnes, 72 

Stromo Is., 160 

Strutton, J., sailor with Hudson, 
13, 136 

Strype, J., his use of Machyn's 
Diary, 39. 



Talboys, M., agent for ^luscovy 
Co., 54; at Astrachan (1581), 
56 

Tetgales, Brant, Capt. with Bar- 
entson, (1594), 143 

Thomas Allen, ship. 57 

Trades (The) Increase, a ship, 
(1609), 166 

Trades (The) Increase, a tract, 
(1615), 122, 130 

Tripoli Company, 113 

Turkey Company, 129 

Turnbuli, W., agent for the Mus- 
covy Company (1581), 54; 
at Astrachan, 56 



U. 



Usselinx, Mr,, joins with Plantius 
for a West India Company, 
152 



Van Der Donck, A., value of 
his testimony, 134, 135; his 
words on Hudson's antece- 
dents, 135 ; his words on the 
discovei'y of Delaware bay, 
162 

Van Meteren. See Meteren, E. 
Van 

Vaygats, 138, 141 

Virginia colony, search for a N. 
W. passage near the, 160, 189, 
191 

Virginia Company, its members 
also in Muscovy Company, 82 ; 
Hudson family in it, 82 ; some 
names of members of both 
companies, 127, 128 ; Sir T. 
Smith president of both, 131 



W. 

Wales, Prince of. See Henrj', 
Prince 

Walkaden, R., associate in trade 
for Brazil, 91 

Wallop, H., of Leighton Bussard, 
67 

Walsingham, Sir Francis, friend 
of Dr. Dee, 51, 177 ; Queen 
Elizabeth at his house, 52; 
marries daughter of Sir G. 
Barnes, 78 ; brother-in-law of 
Sir G. Barnes, 2d, 80 ; letter 
to Aldworth on Gilbert's voy- 
age, 93, 94 ; Aldworth's re- 
ply, 94, 95 ; C. Carlile his 
step-son, 95 ; sketch of Sir F. 
W.'s family and history, 96 
allied with C. Hudson, 97 
intimate with Hakluyt, 128 
Hakluyt's letters to Walsing- 
ham, 173 ; his death, 179 

Walton, Izaak, on the Thatched 
House at Hoddesdon 69 



209 



Warwick County, 45 

AVatson, E., Hitcliin estate con- 
veyed to him and H. Hudson 
the elder, 33 

Waymouth, Capt, George, his log- 
books collated with Smith's 
accounts, 155, l'J2 ; " Nar- 
rows " mentioned by him, 
156, 193 ; Gerritz calls him 
Winwood, 189 ; Hudson fol- 
lows his track, 190 

Webster, R., succeeded as Preben- 
dary of Westminster by Hak- 
luyt, 174 

West India Company, 152 

Weymouth, G. See Waymouth, 
G. 

White, John, of the Muscovy Com- 
pany and relative of H. Hud- 
son senior, 40 

White, Sir Thomas, member of 
Muscovy Company and rela- 
tive of H. Hudson senior 29, 
40 



Whithall, John, efforts for Brazil 
trade, 90 ; his associates, 91 

Willoughby. Sir K., first comman- 
der for the Muscovy Company 
(1553), 24; voyage to Lap- 
land, 25, 26 

Winfield, E. M , London, friend of 
Capt., Smith, 126 

Winwood, Capt., same as Way- 
mouth G., 189 

Wood, A. a, extract on Purchas, 
175 

Woodcocke, J., Muscovy Com- 
pany's expedition (1568) un- 
der, 59 

AVoollen manufactures, 106, 107 ; 
monopoly of trade in, 108—116. 
See Merchant Adventurers. 



Young, J., sailor with Hudson, 
(1607), 18. 



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